Who: Series 1
by EmelineCarter92
Summary: The 11th Doctor regenerates into his 12th. The cause of his rengeration has an effect on him. and he will face many challengs and his inner demons. With a New Doctor comes new adventures, new faces, and more dangers. AN: I Imagine the Doctor being played by Andrew Lee Potts. (Since I heard Matt leaving, some things are going to be changed. So keep an eye out.)
1. Everything Changes

AN: The first two chapters also happen before the events of Twelve, my series of one shots. (contains whouffle)

* * *

T_he first few seconds of this new life were sheer torture. Indescribable pain. It felt like an explosion in my head and the jolt traveled to the ends of my toes, cramping every muscle in between. A million pins and needles, stabbed me in spasmic waves, a million cells changing and rearranging themselves._

_And then it was my lung's turn to suffer. They filled with oxygen for the first time and each time I inhaled it felt like I was breathing fire. I prayed to God that I could just die, so I wouldn't have to feel anymore. But no one heard my pleas. I don't know how long I begged for death. But it was long enough to understand that I was alive again._

_Alive._

_That was a sad word._

_Then I realized it was time to fight to stay that way._

_I opened my eyes. My surrounding slowly coming into focus. A girl with brown hair was hovering next to me with concern. She had elfin like features, a round face and a funny nose._

_She was pretty. Never thought that before. But whoever she was I tried to hide my pain from this girl._

* * *

Clara held on to the railing, looking away from the bright light that was nearly blinding. When it faded, (she could actually feel it disappear, behind her closed retinas) she opened her eyes. She went over to the Doctor.

She didn't know what to expect as she approached him. Hesitantly she walked toward where the Doctor lay. Of course his features wouldn't be the same.

He had handsome features. His hair black as night. As she bent down next to him, he started to come around.

His eyes were a dark brown instead of the pale green she had looked into so many times. "Um.." Unsure what to say, she started with something simple. "...Hello."

Sitting up, he spoke. "Hello." The accent was familiar to Clara. She had heard it before but couldn't place it at that moment. Suddenly she felt herself go all mushy at the sound of his voice. But there was something odd about how he greeted her.

He jumped to his feet and went to the console. _Should he be doing that?_ Clara asked herself.

He started flicking switches, going about like she wasn't there. "Right, co-ordinates." He paused. Then he turned to her, brown eyes starting at her. There was something menacing about them. "You girl, are you just going to stand there and be pret'y?"

_"_Pretty_?" _Her voice sounded somewhat harsh. "I have a name."_ She looked at his expression. _There was no familiarity in his eyes, as if he was trying to recall her name. "You do know who I am?" Everything was different about him. She knew this was what he does, but her mind couldn't seem to grasp that this was the same man. What tore her heart was that he didn't seem to know who she was. She had told him to remember her.

"Yeah..." He said with a grin. He was hesitant a moment. His smile then faded. "No. Should I?" He turned back to the console. Setting the coordinates were not easy. He was disoriented. There was no awareness in him, to notice that he wasn't alone. That hurt Clara. Her Doctor was gone and this Doctor didn't know her. She knew about regeneration but not what the effects were. He was sort of manic. Hopefully it was a side effect. It had seemed to be what his other regenerations had gone through directly after the process, but being this out of it.

She knows this is what she does, but not what it does to him. Dozens of thoughts came to her mind but it still came back to one in particular.

She had told him to remember her. He didn't even remember her.

As he pressed a lever he suddenly let out a grunt of discomfort and started to fall but he caught himself against the console.

"Doctor!" It was obvious that he was still hurting. She took a step toward him. His back was to her, slightly slumped over.

Without turning round, he stuck his arm out, "No, 'm fine." He straightened up. "Now co-ordiantes, Earth, right?" He turned to Clara, giving her a bright smile.

She smiled back, watching him walk around the console, walk, not run, like she had seen him do many times before. He didn't seem in a state to be running, let alone operating the TARDIS.

"Should you be doing that?" Clara asked.

"Why shouldn't I?"

"You do know what you're doing."

"Of course I know what I'm doing. I'm the Doctor." He pressed another lever.

The console sparked, the whole TARDIS lurching forward. Clara instinctively grabbed the railing and held on tight, ducking to avoid the sparks.

When the movement stopped, Clara slowly got up.

"Oops." _Wrong button. _"I meant to do tha'."

That smile again. It made Clara want to smile even though she felt miserable, a deep sadness within her. Why did she feel guilty of the urge to smile? She watched his movements. His clothes hung loosely on him. The shirt and become untucked from his trousers, which were bunched up over his boots, almost making him trip. It would have been quite comical in a different situation.

"You seem in quite a hurry. What are we running from?"

"Ah." He clapped his hands together. "I should've told you before...something's following us."

"What's following us?"

"Here's the thing. I dun' quite know yet." He walked to another panel, in exaggerated strides, (probably due to losing a few inches of height.)

The TARDIS lurched again, only slightly.

"WHAT. Are you doing?" Clara shouted, it nearly came out a scream as she grabbed a hold of the railing again. He grabbed hold of the console panel, although this time she didn't know if it was too keep balanced or the pain and disorientation. It seemed to pass quickly. He walked fast to each individual control panel and then to the main controls, pressing all the leavers and buttons. His movements making her dizzy. "Doctor will you slow down?"

"Slow down? That's what I don't do. Just because I'm old, never. Now...this." He stretched his arms out in front of him.

"You really should..."

"I told you I know what I'm doing."

"Do you? To me it looks like you're just pressing a lot of buttons..." Clara shouted as the TARDIS gave one final lurch.

* * *

When Clara awoke, she could see a dense fog covering the ground. She could hear the pitter patter of feet. Was it his regenerations running past her? For a few seconds she wondered if she was still in the Doctor's time stream and that she had dreamed that he had gotten her out.

She closed her eyes, wishing it not to be true. But once she closed them, she was afraid to open them again.

'eh. pretty girl." A Yorkshire accent called. Yorkshire. That's where the accent was from. "Wake up." It took her another few seconds to recognize it. Familiar yet unfamiliar at the same time.

Still she did not open her eyes. She could feel him bending over her, his breath on her face.

"Anyone home in there?" He tapped her on the head.

She brushed his hand away. "Hey. Stop it." Opening her eyes, she sat up. Before she could stand out he was heading for the TARDIS doors.

"Doctor!" She called, following after him.

* * *

The Doctor stumbled out of the TARDIS, his body still giving off regeneration energy. He collapsed to the ground. He was unfamiliar with his surroundings. He was on an alien planet. While he left in the TARDIS something had followed him through the Vortex. And that wasn't good.

His thoughts were disrupted as a sudden flash of pain shot through his entire body, his head still pounding. Regenerating while escaping Trenzalore had severely weakened him, not just his previous one.

Later in this regeneration he would come to think that was the cause of the change in him. What happened in his last few moments of his previous regeneration influenced the next. Whatever happened on Tenzalore stayed with him. He didn't remember it though and was grateful that he didn't. It sometimes irritated him. He knew everything. Missing a part of your life was like missing someone who had been a big part of your life. That was everybody the Doctor had touched…..or destroyed.

But now in the present, confused and disoriented, he didn't know who he was. All he remembered was that a terrible danger was coming.

The next thing he remembered, he was resting against something solid. Someone must have dragged him there.

He could hear rustling of leaves and running footsteps. Not knowing who he was or where he was, he at least knew one thing something had followed him, and it wasn't something pleasant.

_Must need sleep, _his body was telling him. But his mind was telling him he needed to help.

It was dark and he couldn't see. Then he realized he had his eyes closed. It was hard to open them.

* * *

She saw him laying on the ground. He was pale, his breathing heavy, his face contorted. His eyes were closed tight against the pain. She bent down next to him. "Doctor." She put her hand to his face. "Doctor, can you hear me?"

"Clar...ah." His eyes closed impossibly tighter. A flash of pain shot through his head.. He winced but as quickly the pain had come, it faded.

Clara took his hand. "You do remember me."

At the sound of her words, his eyes opened. Those brown eyes, had the same expression she had always seen in his green ones.

Though his eyes were open, he wasn't really seeing her. A red glow seemed to obscure his vision. He could see faces, faces he knew that belonged to his old friends. His eyes lit up from recognition of the memories that flashed before him. The faces he saw, he could remembered them but couldn't put names to them.

His eleventh self's mind was dying. His body was dead but his consciousness still hung around till the process was complete. He would not go yet. He had fourteen more hours, unless he gave up. Last time his tenth consciousness had given up early, just an hour.

He couldn't put a name to the girl in front of him. He held on to comfort her, "Of course I do...impossible girl." A voice that wasn't his, yet it was. His new body wasn't complete. Sleeping would help the process along smoothly. But he didn't want to spend HIS last moments sleeping. He had no choice in the matter. The knife inside his head began to twist again. Just a twinge at first, but building quickly until his skull seemed to throb with the pain. A loud humming began in his ears. The aching in his head increased and turned into a sharp stabbing. The pain was too much. His eyes drifted closed.

"No. No. NO. Wake up." She lightly slapped his face. "Wake up." She let out a sound of frustration. Staring down at his unconscious form. "I thought it would stop." This couldn't be normal. How much pain he was in. She'd thought it would stop after he regenerated. Maybe his cells hadn't completely regenerated yet, the process not complete. A thought came to one word. _Rest._ That's what he needed.

She dragged him over to rest against a tree. At least he was lighter. Hours ago, when he had been dying she could barely move him, trying desperately to drag him to the TARDIS.

She went back to the box, trying to open it. The door remained shut. "No. Don't do this." Giving up, she rushed back over to him, staring at him like she never seen him before.

Clara heard the snapping of twigs close by. She looked around. Standing a few feet away was a young girl, peering out from behind a tree. "You, there. Can you get us some help? He...he needs somewhere to rest."

* * *

Elizbet peered around the tree to get a closer feet shuffling through the leaves. The female human must have heard her for he looked in her direction. She ducked back behind the tree, her heart pounding.

The human girl had tears running down her face. "He can't stay here or in the TARDIS."

Elizbet approached cautiously.

The human was also cautious. "Don't come any closer." Clara's instincts were screaming at her to protect the newly regenerated Doctor. His appearance had changed but the process was not yet complete. That much she knew. He needed somewhere safe to rest. But was it safe to move him? It seemed that there was no choice.

"I just...I just wanted to see if he's ok." Elizbet looked down at the man sitting on the ground resting against the tree. He had his eyes closed. The man she was looking down at looked about in his early twenties to mid thirties.

"I'm Clara." She extended her hand.

Elizbet shied away, not quite sure what she was supposed to do with the hand.

"I'm not going to bite." Said Clara."Although." She looked down at the Doctor. "He might." She caught Elizbet's look. "It's only a joke. If you're wondering, what a strange man from a box falling out of the sky, I have no idea either, but only one of us is human."

"Him." Elizbet nodded toward the unconcious man again.

"No. Me." She paused. "Why would you assume him human?"

"He looks human." Elizbet stated, and the least bit strange looking.

"So do you." Clara said pointedly.

Elizbet shrugged and walked over to the man by the tree. She could sense his enegry, stronger than anything. Then it started to decrease. "His energies depleting."

_He could make out a figure kneeling in front of him. Whoever he was. He knew something was after him, and the person in front of him was in danger._ "Fear." He said.

"What?" Elizbet asked.

He finally opened his eyes and looked up at her. There was something about those eyes that scared her.

"They can smell your fear." The young man said. He pulled himself in an upright position but didn't stand up.

"He's just talking nonsense." Clara muttered. "Can you stay here and watch him." The human said observing Elizbet, who was checking over the Doctor with great concern and worry.

"Where are you going?" Elizbet asked.

"To find civilization of course, so the Doctor can rest."

"I know how to get there. I could show you..."

"Someone needs to stay here with the Doctor. In his current state he won't be able to keep up."

A creature that looks like a leech swimming in air, it's lower half was like a scorpions, stinger and all, came out of nowhere.

Elizbet blasted it with her energy rifle.

"Was he...was he attacked?" Elizbet got closer to him.

Clara nodded.

"I can check him over...if..one of those slingers attacked him..."

"He was attacked, yes, but not by those creatures." said Clara.

"What happened to him?"

"He died but then he changed." said the human as if it was the most normal thing in the world. "His whole cells can rebuilt themselves. We need to get him some place safe." She said.

"Wouldn't that box be safe?" Elizbet started at it, still trying to remember where she'd seen it before.

"I tried getting back in. She won't open her doors for me. Do you know where they came from, those creatures...what do you call them?"

"Slingers." Elizbet replied. "I don't know where they came from though. Maybe he knows." Elizbet turned back to the young man, who started coming round again. "Do you know?"

"Yes." He smiles insanely. The smile fades as he pauses to think. "No….actually….ah."He called out in pain. He wasn't done yet. The cells in his body were still changing. The regeneration energy glows around the Doctor. He passed out.

"What's that light?" Elizbet asked. She saw it glowing around the young man. Whatever the light was only Elizbet could see it. And it was very powerful. She was careful not to touch it if it was his energy source. If she touched it she could drain it. Suddenly the same disturbance in the air she felt earlier felt close.

Elizbet casted a glimpse at the telephone box. It was strange. It was like it was there but she didn't want to notice it and wanted nothing to do with it. She had found the connection to where the disturbance had come from. It was the energy from this strange box. It was the same energy that was coming from this man. It felt like ecstasy to her. She was badly tempted to touch the glow around him. The box with the energy made her want to stay away from it. It was as if it knew and was playing with her mind to forget that it was there. She knew now what brought the slingers here. They were after his energy and maybe the energy within the blue box as well. His energy wasn't like any humans. She could see their energies when she wanted. Earth people called them auras and they all had their different colours. His shone the brightest. She knew now that he defiantly wasn't human. Humans don't step out of flying blue boxes. She remembered fantasy stories her village used to tell the children on her home planet. It was something about a blue box and a lonely traveler. There was even a nursery rhyme. She didn't remember the words, or the tune. She dismissed the thought instantly. To her that was child's play. She was more intent on something else. The children in her village also played another game in school. "Let's play guess the species." It didn't grow out of style when they reached adulthood. Her people every much enjoyed the game but sometimes added sick sadistic rules to it. If he was human, she didn't know why her people were so afraid of humans. They seemed rather hapless creatures. But she believed in what was right, defending the weak and helpless. Right now this man was weak. But the energy he was giving off was becoming strong again. It was attracting the slingers and would attract more.

"We got to get him away from here." Elizbet said. She was already at the "young" man's side as he started to come round. She put his arm around her shoulder. He was already coming to.

"They're sensitive to light." The man said. "They won't be able to stay in the sun too long."

He went over to the TARDIS and tried to pull the door open. "NO, DON"T DO THIS TO ME AGAIN." He shouted. "WHY DO YOU ALWAYS...OPEN THE DOOR!" He felt that he couldn't do anything. But he didn't have nothing. His old personality of his previous regeneration was still with him, it wasn't completely gone, it wouldn't be until he fully regenerated. He could use that as his advantage to try and keep focused.

Elizbet fired at the slingers but missed as they dodged the jolts of electricity from the alien weaponry. They were growing smarter by the minute, or they were getting desperate.

"What are they doing?" He asked without looking back, over his shoulder.

Elizbet responded, suddenly finding herself to trust this stranger, "I don't know… just floating there."

"That's not good." He fiddles with key in the lock. But it wouldn't even work. Clara tried telling him that she already tried. He was oblivious to her. "There's no time." He was starting to feel the urge to sleep again. It didn't help him none that he had a strange girl hovering over him.

The slingers were approaching.

"Come, on Doctor." Clara said, 'shouldn't we be running?"

"Right." The Doctor grabbed Elizbet's hand, who was standing next to him. They took off running, dodging the slingers, their stringers raised. Clara following after.

They had to get out of here. That was the only thing on Elizbet's mind. No doubt the gunfire would've attracted the the soldiers and/or more slingers.

'The Doctor" seemed perfectly fine now to carry on. He didn't look like he was on the verge to collapse like he had been moments before. It was as if the apparent danger had boosted his will to fight off his weakness. It amazed Elizbet. She never met anyone like that.

"Who are you?" Elizbet asked.

"I don't know." The stranger said honestly. He couldn't remember how he got here or where here was for that matter. They were running from something. The running was something familiar to him, and this girl by his side.

They were back at the same place they started out. Elizbet cautioned him, walking ahead of him. But he pushed his way past her. How rude. She wanted to say but turned her mind to the more important details. She observed their surroundings. The slingers were nowhere in sight.

He approached the telephone box.

How could he not remember? She looked him over. He didn't look in a right old state. Maybe when his ship entered the atmosphere it addled his brain. She thought. He didn't seem to recall the events from earlier either. "Don't you remember..." What happened in the last five minutes, she was going to say but she didn't know how he'd react. He seemed to have amnesia. Maybe it had something to do with the regeneration.

He touched the door to the TARDIS. He hears a humming noise coming from within it. But it just wasn't just some strange humming noise. "It sounds like it's trying to communicate with me."

"What? That's impossible. It's just a box." Elizbet protested. Ok now he really was insane.

Impossible. That wasn't even a word in his vocabulary. The impossible seemed to happen when he was around. How could one more thing hurt? He reached the handle and pulled. The door wouldn't budge.

"You tried that before...Maybe you have the key in your pocket?" She suggested.

He patted his shirt pocket and his pants pockets. He stops a second and then takes off his boot. He empties the boot and the TARDIS key slides out into the palm of his hand.

He opened it and stepped inside. The young brunette tried to follow him but he shut the door on her. He reopened it a crack, peering out. She couldn't see inside. She could only make out a hint of a glowing light.

"Hold on." He closed the door again. "Wow. You are a beauty."

Clara waits patiently outside. Then she starts to get anxious and starts tapping her foot. She crosses her arms.

He came back out within two shakes of a second, just as two slingers come out from their hiding place. "Quick in here." He pulled them both inside the TARDIS. "Bigger on the inside." He said. "And all that..."

The main console area was pretty high up, the other half, the base was centered in the middle of the vast open space below the stairs. In the main console area there were several bridges that led off down long corridors. There was another bridge from where the control panel was to the main doors. It was illogical that they were on the second level. The control panel was orange, and the central column clear glass. Inside the column were several clear tubes that moved up and down, array of colorful lights, green, gold, and purple swirled reminiscent to a lave lamp or for a better example, one of those Tesla balls you see in science museums.

The interior walls were an orange color and the floor looked like it was black marble.

"Where...what is this place?" It was all she could ask.

"The TARDIS." He responded. "You're in the TARDIS."

"Time Relative Dimentions in Space."

"How did you know that?" He squinted at her. "And it's one's, actually." He said, pushing off the railing he was leaning against and made his way over to her.

"TARDIS's aren't even real. They're from a story in a kids book."

"Yet, you're wondering how it can it be real." It was like he had read her mind. That was eerie. He stepped over to Clara. "Now, what were we doing?"

He stood close to her until they were face to face, too close for comfort. She took a step back, he took a step forward. He could feel his breath on her face. She looked else where.

"You don't remember?" Elizbet asked. How was she supposed to help someone with amnesia when you didn't know them? That's how Clara felt.

"You don't remember who I am?" Clara asked. "You do know who I am."

He started circling her, looking her over. Why was he doing that?

"Tricky thing, regeneration." He said, stepping in front of her again. He skiped over to the console.

The TARDIS lands in a vast, thick woodland, known as the Forest of Dean. It was slightly raining.

"There we go." He said as they stepped out. "Forest of Dean." He put out his arms and took in the fresh air. "Your favorite place right?" Or was he thinking of someone else, someone he read about?

There were rustling of leaves.

"The esponats. They found me." Elizbet urged them to go. She did not want them to shoot him. Esponats didn't stop for explanations.

"Let me guess they're the ones who shoot first and ask questions later?" The Doctor said.

"The esponauts are the guards of Reseltania. They probably received the signal of your blue box entering the atmosphere. They probably want me…but if they find your ship that'll be like winning the lottery to them. You have to go…."

"I'm not leaving ." Weird, he thought. He remembered saying those words many times before. He'd usually add, you at the end of that sentence.

Worrying about herself wasn't important at the moment. Keeping him alive was. She urged him on; assuring him she would be fine.

In the distance they could hear them coming closer.

"Come with me." He puts out his hand. She goes to take it but draws back her hand. "You can trust me." Two other things that sounded familiar.

"How do I know you're not a bad guy?" She was starting to feel doubt. Doubt that maybe things were too good to be true, that he didn't know who he was. Maybe the energy could be useful; they didn't need to take all of it.

"I don't feel like a bad guy. " He might not know who he is but he had a feeling he was a nice decent person. He had to get her out of here before they spotted them. They were to close now for him to abandon her. "Now listen to me and run."

Gun fire explodes in the open forest. He grabs her hand and they run.

They were back in the TARDIS once more. They run back in the TARDIS. She sensed he did a lot of running.

"Are you sure we're safe in here?"

"Oh yeah, their reinforced…..(he caught himself in his own lie. What was the point?) No, actually they're…..wood."

She looks at him like "are you serious?"

"Don't worry about that. No one gets in without a key….."

She looked around, taking in the big space crammed in to the little one. It was like a soap bubble and outside was a tiny soap bubble, an entry to another world, exactly like her galaxy. She hadn't been that amazed when she first stepped inside it. She sort of expected this sort of thing. It wasn't the space within that amazed her; it was how similar things were. This place felt like home. Caught up in her own thoughts she didn't notice him stumble over to the console, clutching his chest.

The Doctor sits down on the chair next to the console.

"Is there a problem?" She turned to him.

"Slight problem. I've been shot. "

"And you just now decide to tell me?" She runs over to him. He turns the chair; he reaches one arm back and grabs the edge of the console.

Clara stepped forward, "How bad is it?" She opened his shirt. There was no bullet wound, not even a trace of blood. "You're not even injured."

"Still regenerating." He winced, his hand on his injured chest. "I only got one heart workin'" That wasn't all that wasn't working. His regeneration wasn't going as smoothly. It barely healed the damage. Well, the physical damage outside it had fixed.

A yellow light streams out of the console; it engulfs his hand and then seems to glow through his veins as it moves up his arm to his injured chest.

The light streams out from his chest briefly before fading.

"What was that?"

"Good thing I still had enough regeneration energy, tha' just boosted it, like a kick star'." He jumped up from the pilot chair, flipping a lever on the console. "Know who I am now. My Sexy helped."

"Your what?" She shook her head. "So now you know who you are?"

"I'm a time lord." That much he knew and how to pilot the TARDIS. "The TARDIS helped. She tapped into the left over regeneration energy, feed it through her matrix system back to me and re-jogged my memory...somewhat I'm still a bit sketchy on the other details" He looked over to her. "You, what's your name?"

"Elizbet Taylor."

"That's not your real name is it?"

"I took the name after an Earth actress. " She didn't notice she had made a little slip and that he did notice.

"Elizabeth Taylor. She was lovely woman. How about I call you Liz? No I called Elizabeth that, she could be a bit feisty if I didn't. That'll be a bit confusing. How about Liza? Might take me a while to remember it, new mind, new everythin.' mind's still a bit jumbled. It's one thing the TARDIS can't do…help with the synopsis" He examined his old outfit. "Now, that's just ridiculous." He untied the bow tie. He didn't like bow ties. They suited his previous incarnation. He left it hang around his neck for a few seconds then he dropped it on the floor.

"Can I ask you your name ?"

"I'm the Doctor." He started pressing random buttons. He turned to Clara. "Now...tell me what I look like."

"Why don't you look in a mirror?" There was a bit of harshness to her voice, though she didn't mean it.

"Thank goodness I'm not ginger….can't believe I wanted to be ginger, two regeneration's of wanting to be ginger and you get tired of it." He ran his fingers through his jet black hair. He hadn't had black hair in a long time. "Still…big improvement since last time. Hello handsome." He examined his teeth. "I'm not very fond of the teeth." He tapped his two front teeth, which were slightly bigger than the others. "Clara." When he spoke her name he didn't say it right. He pronounced it Clar-a. Probably because of his new voice he had to work with.

"Yep, that's me." Clara responded. Suddenly he seemed to have remembered her name.

"Clar-a Oswin Oswald."

"Just, Oswald..."

He examined his old outfit. He was still acting like her Doctor, and when he said, "Clar-a Oswald, the impossible girl." there was hope he'd stick around. "Threw herself into my time stream, doesn't really make you impossible."

"You're no different."  
"I am different. In every sense of the word."

"You're still a bit snappy, aren't you?"  
"Snappy?"

"You're still like him."

"Just a side effect. I'll be me, if and when this rengeration works out."

"So, you'll be a different man, then."

"Same man, Clar-a. My pretty, girl."

"Pretty? There you go again. The Doctor would never say I was pretty."

"He would but not in that way.."

"Well, I guess that way is ok, then." She smiled at him.

"Hold on, did I just flirt? Was that a flirt. "

"Yes." Clara slightly frowned. "I think it was." She sort of liked it but before she admitted it, the Doctor did.

"I think I like being flirty."

"Hey, weren't we arguing or weren't we?"

Just as he was about to reply, his legs seem to give out from under him. He grabs on to the chair and leans against it to keep from falling. He grabs on to the chair.

"Are you ok?"

"Sorry. New legs haven't gotten used to them yet." He lied, pulling himself up and plopping down on the chair. He takes off his boots. "That's better." He looks down at his trousers. "Right, first order of business Clara. I need a new pair of pants." He then pulled on his untucked shirt, "And a shirt."

"I'm pretty sure now's not the time to be thinking of a wardrobe change."

"Why not? Gotta retain my image." He looked at himself in the mirror. again. "Now that's just ridiculous." He undid the bow tie, letting it hang around his neck, before dropping it to the floor.

Clara eyes slightly watered as watched it flutter to the ground.

"You can never tell with regeneration. The whole things a mystery and you don't know what you're going to get, like me. Right, I'm going to change me clothes."

"This is hardly the ti..." She started to say but he started off toward one of the corridors.

"Touch nothin" He called to her.

* * *

The space ship was high above earth's atmosphere. The guards enter the Queen's throne room. They used the slingers to "sniff" out the traitors.

"We got a signal. It was some sort of ship, a blue box." One of the guards says.

"Tell me of this blue box." Ordered the Queen.

"It's somewhere on Earth. Some base called U.N.I.T. We have others looking for it."

"Mum, we picked up this footage. One of the traitors was seen with him, a girl from our village." The second guard shows her a device, like a palm pilot. On the screen is the Doctor and Abby running from the guards.

"Figures a village girl would go off with a fool dressed like that. Where did he come from?" Her superstition kicked in.

"We believe….I believe he's the owner of the blue box mum."

" Yeah, a blue box out of a children's story." The second guard laughs and smirks.

"What's this children's story." She already knew the nonsense story. She just couldn't believe that it was coming true in front of her.

"It's about a traveler in who travels the stars in a blue box. It is said he is the last of his kind." The second guard says, not exactly believing what was going on.

The queen's commodore comes into the room. He knew the story from heart. The moment he saw the ship he no longer knew it was no nonsense. "The ship is the most powerful thing in the universe. If the legends of old are true your majesty, we have to find the blue box, we can harness its power."

"The power of the box is connected with the traveler. The object is a living thing." The Queen recalled. "Find this traveler, confiscate his ship. But do not harm him. I want him questioned first."

* * *

The Doctor goes through the TARDIS wardrobe. He thought of trying on a suit but he didn't like suits or anything to fancy. He took of the suit jacket and tried on a waistcoat instead. It suited his new body perfectly. It made him feel secure. He went over to the scarves. He found he had a fondness of them. He took out a pair of fingerless gloves someone gave him for Christmas awhile back. He couldn't remember the name at the moment. He took a black fedora off a hat stand and placed it on his head. "No, not yet." He put it back. He grabbed a jacket from one of the racks.

The Doctor comes back to the console room. He's wearing a white dress shirt with blue stripes, black waistcoat, a scarf and black fingerless gloves.

"Do you think it's safe to go outside now?" She asked him.

"Check the monitor." He turns it on and turns the screen toward her.

"You look nice." She said to him.

"Thanks."

* * *

The Queen watched the screen as the traveler exit the TARDIS.

"Run." The Doctor said.

Liza grabbed his hand and they ran. They stopped once they lost sight of the guards.

They were on a street corner. The street was lined with restaurants and shops. "They won't find us here. For awhile."

"What do we do first?" Clara asked.

"They'd be thrown off by the human's energy readings." Elizbet stated.

"First off, I'm hungry. Do you know anywhere we can get some food. I'd like some Pizza. 1,000 years and I never had pizza." They enter the food court. They sit down once he gets his food. Once he takes a bite he spits it out.

"What is that?"

"You said you wanted Pizza." Liza said. She wasn't found of Earth food.

"That is not Pizza." He said, waving a slice in his hand. "I'll take you to America one day. They have the best pizza."He takes another bite of it. He makes a face.

"Why'd you take another bite then?" Clara said. He didn't make sense at all.

"Just checking." He said with a mouth full. He looks over her shoulder. "Get down." He and Liza duck behind their chairs.

"They found us?"

"Yep. On count of three." They run but they are spotted.

"But you didn't count. " Elizbet said, ducking to avoid a laser blast. Several humans run and scream, trying to find a nearest exit. She didn't let go of the Doctor's hand. She didn't understand his logic at all.

"That's the Doctor for you." said Clara.

They run through the shop.

"I can't believe I'm talking to you. You're supposed to be a character in a kid's book."

"I was someone's imaginary friend once." His eyes briefly went downcast. "That's two points for me."

"You're not even real."

He turned around sharply. "I'm not real? Look at me and tell me I'm not real."

She reached for him cautiously. Hesitantly she put a hand to his chest. She could hear two steady heart beat. He was solid and he was very real.

The guards eventually capture them. Liza tries to run to the Doctor but she is held back by a guard. "Let him go."

"I'll be fine." He said as they were dragged off in opposite directions.

The Doctor was sitting in a room. He was tied to a chair. There were no doors or windows. It kind of looked like the TARDIS but there were no lights.

Commodore Fredon said, "If you're wondering we're you are, we're inside your head. A delicate thing, a time lord's mind. When it's still going through regeneration." He was the queen's personal guard and also a professional psychiatrist. He knew how to break a person's mind but this one's was difficult.

The Doctor only had a few cuts and bruises. But he never experienced anything this violent after regeneration before. He didn't really worry about what effects it would have on him. His thoughts directed to the girl. He had to help her. He said he would. He kept promises.

They were getting inside his head. And he wasn't fully regenerated yet. The synopses in his brain were still being rewired, so they would be compatible with his new form.

Fredon started reciting the words of a poem he had heard as a child. "Twinkle Twinkle little Star. Like a diamond in the sky. High above the world you fly. In your TARDIS, by and by."

"You made that up all on your own?"

"It's a nursery rhyme. It was sung to us when we were children."

"I bet your mummy didn't sing it to you." Ooh, that was an insult. Did he insult people now when he was annoyed?

"Most of us thought it was a fairytale. It spoke of a race long since believed to be extinct, except for one. Just couldn't believe when I found out it was you."

"A lot of people think I'm just a story." Elizbet had called him a "fairy tale" and that hurt. Well he intended to keep it that way. The less people knew about him or that didn't know he existed the better.

"A Time Lords energy is more powerful than a humans. From what I understand you recently regenerated. Your energy would be extensively stronger. It would be enough to sustain me for millennia. But I can't take it while you're living."

"The Queen wouldn't be pleased if you killed me."

"I could tell her it was an accident. That you wouldn't cooperate."

"You really think she'd buy that? "

"Why would that matter? I'd be powerful enough to overthrow her, and this planet will be mine."

"Even if you kill me I'll just regenerated again."

"Not….if I use this." He takes out a syringe. "It's stops any form of cellular regeneration in its tracks. Tell me where your TARDIS is. I knew you wouldn't crack. Time to say goodbye Dr."

The Doctor raises his feet and kicks Fredon back. He tips the chair back and easily gets out of it.

He blocks Fredon's blows with the chair. He throws the chair aside and knocks the man unconscious.

He runs into one of the guards outside the door.

"Not so fast." The guard said.

"Well so much for the thrill." He turned around, putting his hands up.

* * *

He is taken to the Queen, where Clara and Liza are waiting for him.

"Where are you from Time Traveler? What is your species?" The Queen demands.

"I'm the Doctor. I'm a time lord. And you're going to tell me what you're doing here and what your plan is."

"The Slingers are nothing but pets. They helped track down your energy." The Queen sneered.

"That actually worked." The Doctor said.

"They're harvesting humans for energy." Elizbet said, disgusted now what her people did to this race. Humans were no threat to their species. "We feed off of energy of other life forms. It's a cruel way to live but it's how we have to survive."

"And you wanted me for my energy? I'm done regenerating so there's no need to keep me here, no?" He didn't use any tone in his voice. Better they couldn't tell if he was bluffing or not.

What was he doing? Elizbet thought. Did he want to get himself killed? The queen would dispose of him now that he was useless to them.

The Doctor lied about being done regenerating. It hadn't been at least fifteen hours yet. At least the bluff would buy him enough time to escape and figure out how to stop the evil queen.

"What do you want to do with him?" A guard, Number 8 asked the queen. He was hoping to use torture. It was his favorite. If they couldn't have his energy they could still have his ships.

"I heard banishment is worse. " The Queen said.

Number 8 clears his throat. "We hereby banish you….."

"Wait." Liza interrupted. The Doctor knocked out the guard holding Clara. He opened the door with his sonic screwdriver and they ran out.

"Stop them!" The Queen bellowed out.

In the bowel of the ship, the portal that has humans coming through is still working.

Two slingers are floating above a teleport pod.

"Uh….we should get out." He didn't take his eyes off the creatures.

"No, it's ok. They're under control." Liza noticed the slingers had around them what looked like shock collars. "If you're done regenerating they won't come after you."

"I sort of lied." There was one thing that never changed. He usually lied to protect someone or himself.

"There's no such thing as sort of a lie." You tell the half truth it was still a lie to Liza.

"Where we're from there is apparently." Clara said.

"Where I come from there is...or spend most of my time, don't know which one sounds right." He got his pretenses mixed up, basically because he didn't come from nowhere.

"You'll be fine as long as the Queen believes you're done regenerating."

"Wait, the ones that attacked us earlier..." He turned to look at her. She found it uncomfortable staring into his eyes. She turned her gaze somewhere else. He was also standing too close to her. If she were to look at him directly their noses would have touched. She would have to teach him about personal space, if she got the chance, when they weren't running for their lives.

"They must've been the rogue ones."

The Doctor gives her a more intent stare, waiting for an explanation. "Wild Slingers." She explained.

The Queen and her men enter the room.

One of the portal operators says to the Queen. "These are the youngest of the life forms ma'am. "

Elizbet freezes as she watches two children coming through. "No." She had gone along with how her culture did and ran things for far too long. She realised in this moment that she had learned something her three years on this planet. What she learned from humans, torturing the innocent was wrong. She got the queens people and the humans to turn against her. "Look what she's been doing. Can't you see this isn't right? They're just children."

The guards and the humans turn on the Queen.

"No what do you think you're doing I am the Queen resist. She is the traitor."

The Queen is taken out of the room.

The Doctor gets everyone back through the portal. "Every last human, back home."

"Where were you when they brought those children through?" Clara asked.

"I was there." He was staring ahead, seemingly off somewhere else.

"I know you were. You just stood back and didn't do anything."

"I wasn't in my right mind, was I? Not done yet."

"That's an excuse." Elizbet said. "I hope you don't make a habit of it Doctor."

"I hope not." The Doctor said.

One of the guards came up, "Doctor, your ship should be arriving..." As soon as he said the words the TARDIS, arrived, via Transmat pod.

"If you did anything to hurt 'er I'll be back for ye." The Doctor looked over the exterior and then stroked her frame. Liza was sure she heard him say, "Good, ol' girl."

Liza put on her best smile, surely the Doctor had been joking about the coming back part. "He was just joking."She told the guard. She hoped he was joking.

"Well good thing it turned out all right in the end eh?" The Doctor said as they headed toward the TARDIS. Clara went inside.

"You're leaving?"Liza asked the Doctor.

The Doctor stopped and turned around. "Always have to."

Elizbet looks upset. "Wish I could come with you. You were starting to grow on me."

"Really?' He reached his hand back but it just touched air. He backed up a bit and glanced back, patting the TARDIS.

"No. Besides I don't do flying." She was afraid of heights.

"She doesn't do much flyin." He motioned to the TARDIS behind him, sort of hoping she'd come with him.

"I got to handle things here. They all got to need someone now they don't know what to do. Now that they don't have a Queen anymore."

"Right. Tell you what, though." He reached his hand back again, this time his hand rested on the TARDIS door. "I'll take you to earth again sometime. We'll do pizza." He goes into the TARDIS unsure if he was going to see her again. Probably not, but he had to keep his promise. That's what he knows about himself so far.

* * *

He traced the time portal, Liza had described. "I'm going to trace this time portal, Liza was talking about, set it all straight."

"Then where are you going?" Clara asked.

"You are going home." The Doctor looked at the monitor.

UNIT BASE

The U.N.I.T. medics had lifted the body onto the stretcher and covered it with a blanket.

"What was her name?" The Doctor asked a young blond woman who was watching the soldiers as well. She looked about no more than twenty.

She said without looking at him.

The medics wheel the body away.

Outside U.N.I.T. Base

The Doctor is on the stairs leading to the U.N.I.T. Base. He looks out over the railing at the open field. He hears someone behind him.

"Isn't it peaceful?"

The Doctor turns around. The blond girl comes up to the railing. She smiles, the sun shines through her hair.

"I'm sorry if I startled you." She says.

"No, I was…."

"Lost in thought?"

"Well you could say that."

"It's the ideal place for that, after being cooped up in there all day." She nods toward the base. "So you're the infamous Doctor?"

"Depends wha' ye 'eard."

"That you're the best." She glanced at him. "Are you really an alien?"

"You look more like the alien."

"Sorry if I was intruding. I was just curious."

"Just curious?" He raises his eyebrows.

She smiles. He smiles back.

"Hold on, I think I recognized this place."

Two soldiers one of them, Captain Harper , appear out on the field, headed in their direction. Two men are with them.

"What is it now?" The blond girl says agitated. She descends down the stairs toward the field.

A fissure opens several meters behind them. A slinger comes through. It attacks one of the soldiers. The other two fire at it. The slinger falls to the ground dead. The fisher closes.

The soldiers raise their guns at the Doctor.

"It's alright. He's the Doctor." The girl said.

The soldiers didn't seem too much intrigued, the other two men either.

They had read up on his past regenerations. They only knew of his third, fourth and briefly his tenth and eleventh regenerations. Because the Doctor had recently regenerated not long ago, they were not sure of this Doctor's personality. It would make him rather annoying to them rather quickly.

"Why does everyone keep pointing a gun at me today? Do I have a sign on me head that says target?"

U.N.I.T. base manager, James Lester didn't seem too impressed at the moment. "I don't want to interrupt your attempt at sarcasm Doctor but it is a necessary precaution under U.N.I.T bylaws….."

The Doctor turns to the blond girl. "U.N.I.T. You work for U.N.I.T?"

The blond tries to look innocent.

Lester didn't take to be interrupted. This much was sure; this new Doctor didn't seem to respect authority.

The other man with the "U.N.I.T. squad." stepped forward. He looked about in his mid forties and had black graying hair. "Doctor,I see you met Amanda Clearwater. Amanda, the Doctor." The man introduced them.

"It's Mandy." Amanda corrected him.

"How do we know he's the Doctor?" The soldier still has his gun pointed at him.

The Doctor replies, "The blue box, it's on the lower floor. Don't touch it. It's mine." He pointed to where the soldiers had Clara restrained. "And she's with me. I'll have you let 'er go."

"He's the Doctor all right." Lester said, rolling his eyes.

"Yes, I'm the Doctor." He grinned from ear to ear, like a choir boy who just ditched practice. He liked to annoy people because they annoyed him sometimes. It wouldn't hurt them to give a little respect. "Come on, time to get you back where you belong." He told Clara. Then he turned and said what his previous lives would have never been caught dead saying, "And I would like a solute."

The soldiers saluted.

"I love it when they salute." He has a big grin on his face again.

Mandy rolls her eyes.

"Wha'?"


	2. When the Clock Strikes Twelve

The Doctor and Clara pay a visit to UNIT, in 2034. They meet the new UNIT team, helping them out with a spot of trouble, rips in time, and obviously aliens.

But before all that happened, Clara had witnessed her Doctor die. The man, now if front of her was like a complete stranger. She had captured glimpses of his regenerations through his time stream.

The Doctor did not have control over his regenerations. He had dropped out of the Academy before he learned that bit.

He had brown eyes like her, had a Yorkshire accent because of that bloody trip, and wasn't too tall, so that things wouldn't be quite awkward.

* * *

The TARDIS materialized in U.N.I.T Base causing the security system to go off.

**Intruder Alert. Intruder Alert.**

The security grabbed their guns.

The Doctor steps out of the TARDIS. "Is it illegal to park here?" All guns were pointed right at him and Clara.

"It's all right. I know him."Someone spoke.

The security guards turn to see a middle-aged man. It was the man who introduced him to Mandy.

Macpherson and the Doctor are walking down a hallway. Harper is walking behind them.

"I'm Sorry, you said you know me?"

"Who is this guy?" Clara asked.

"No idea. Obviously he's in charge."

Macpherson was waiting for this day. Not only had he succeeded in his grandfather's legacy but he has actually met the Doctor. When he introduced himself he tried with all his might not to break a sweat. He didn't want to look like a fool in front of whom, his grandfather described as, the greatest man who ever lived. "Brigadier James Antony Stewart Macpherson." He salutes the Doctor. "My grandfather was…"

"Brigadier Lethbridge Stewart."

"He saved all the documentation on you. He left it to me."

"He trusted you with it?"

"He sure as hell didn't trust my mother with it. I burned it; no one else should know that much about you."

"Good." He wasn't Katie's son. Kate had worked for U.N.I.T. The Doctor didn't know that the Brigadier had an estranged daughter.

"I'm glad you fell into our hands Doctor, quite literally. We've recently lost some key staff. Things are runnin' thin around here. We need all the help we can get."

"Sounds like our sort of thing." Clara said.

They stopped outside the Hub.

"Are you still wearing those ridiculous red hats?" The Doctor asked.

Harper smiles. "Thank God they finally got rid of them, ages ago. Captain Charles Harper. Just Harper to everyone else."

"So you'll be replacing the woman who got transferred." Macpherson said. "You'll be working on computers with Claudia Brown. But first, figure out what's causing those gateways."

"Oh, I'll do more than that." The Doctor had an excited tone in his voice.

"I have no doubt you can. Your friend can stay. Any friend of the Doctor's is any friend of ours."

Clara saluted him.

"That is of course if she can keep a secret."

"My lips are sealed...can't say much for the Doctor though."

Macpherson Laughed. "I was only teasing you."

"So was I." Clara responded.

A woman about in her mid thirties walks toward them.

"There she is now." Macpherson nodded in the woman's direction.

The soldier, Harper, leaned in and whispered in the Doctor's ear, "Whatever you do don't get on Claudia Brown's bad side. There were female Nazi guards in concentration camps. I heard they were more ruthless."

The Doctor couldn't help but smirk at this. The humor the soldier had reminded of someone else's humor, someone he just not too long ago lost.

Macpherson and Harper walk off down the hall.

"Doctor. Welcome so glad you're with us." Claudia said. Already she reminded the Doctor of someone he once knew. It was the reddish-brown hair and the way she carried herself.

Clara was starting to feel second best.

"It's not Mac's place to hire people on the spot." said the woman. "but he's under the impression you're qualified."

She talked a lot too. He wondered if that's what he sounded like to some people.

"Well should we get right to it? You'll be working in the hub. Your stations all set up. We use web phones here. I assume you know how to use them?"

"No worries." He really needed to find out what was going on here. He looked around the massive room. The floors, the walls, the ceiling were all glass.

She introduces him to Jess, who works surveillance. "Jess this is the Doctor."

The young woman turned around in her chair. Before her she saw who they called, "the greatest man."

He was the most gorgeous man she'd ever seen. One look at him and you'd forget he was an alien. She couldn't help it if she was blushing. She shook the Doctor's hand. "Pleased to meet you." The Doctor doesn't look at her twice. Of course why would he? She's just a human being.

The Doctor looked at the second floor. Lester was looking over the stair railing.

"And that's James Lester." Claudia looked in the Doctor's direction. "He's boss around here. You wouldn't want to get in his way."

The Doctor looks back at Jess. Claudia instantly gets the wrong idea that he's starting to take a fancy to Jess. They didn't go making friends around here either.

"You're not actually thinking about staying here." Clara said to the Doctor.

"Alright, Doctor. I should warn you we don't hold hands here. "He was glad she mentioned it. He wasn't interested in making friends at the moment. "It's a pretty steep learning curve but I have no doubt you're up to it. If you can't handle it we throw you in the water, sink or swim."

"I think I'd rather swim." He was busy taking in the newly designed U.N.I.T. It looked different from the last time he was here.

"I like your attitude." Claudia said and went on her way. She had a deep intuition that she was going to like this man.

Later…..

Macpherson and The Doctor are walking down a corridor, Harper following behind him.

"Does he always have to follow us?" The Doctor pointed over his shoulder.

"It's for your protection, sir." Harper said.

"Protection? From what?" Clara almost scoffed. "Doesn't this place have high security or something?"

"It does." Harper said firmly. "Me."

"Alright, Soldier Boy can be useful." Clara said sarcastically.

Though Harper acted annoyed, he knew an strong attractive woman when he saw one. He smiled once her back was turned.

Macpherson explains to the Doctor gateways have been opening in time and space. "They have been happening recently. We sent some recruits to check them out when they first started. It might've involved their disappearance."

"Humans sticking their noses in where they don't belong. Bend the rules a bit. That's what I like. You see something that shouldn't be there and you're like, "It's a big shiny thing, let's check it out." You're like Ferrets."

"As I was saying, they must've wondered in and never came back out. We would go after them but it's too dangerous. We don't know what's on the other side of them."

They enter one of the labs.

"And you got one in right in the middle of your base."

"We managed to contain it."

The Doctor scans the fissure with this sonic screwdriver. He looks at the readings. "Someone is ripping a hole in the tempered schism."

"You made that up." Harper said. "Sounds made up." He mumbled the last part.

"Actually no I didn't. " The Doctor swung his head toward the soldier. "What exactly do you call these things?"

"Temporal Fluxes." Macpherson said.

"I guess that's a fancier way of saying time fissure. " He scanned the fissure a third time.

"What's a time fisher?" Harper asked.

The Doctor closed his eyes tight in frustration and rested his screw driver hand on the floor, desperately trying not to pound on it to show his frustration." How many times Rory, do I have to explain…." His eyes snapped open when he caught himself on the mistake. "Sorry….this body is fairly new. All this excitement... (The Captain is still waiting for an answer.)…They're small holes in time and space. They're not dangerous. Only anything that comes through them." He scanned it one more time. "No more big nasty leech things coming through, sorted that all out."

Clara walked over to the Doctor. "What's going on with you. I thought the process was complete."

"It is." The Doctor was lying and Clara could sense that he was. She put her hands on her hips. He looked up at her, "Shut up... I'm old."

* * *

Mandy was going through some files at her desk.

A warning siren went off.

_I can never take a break can I?_ The Doctor thought to himself.

He ran back to the experiment lab, Clara close behind.

Mandy sat up from her desk and followed.

"I told you, its stabilization won't be….fully stabilized, even if you 'ave the best alien technology." He told Mac.

"Doctor, you never told us that." Harper stated.

"Yeah, but I was thinking it."

"We're not telepathic like you Doctor." Mac said as Mandy entered the room.

"Right I forgot. I'll have to remember that." The Doctor looked at Harper "Stop waving that gun around."

"I'm not risking anything coming through." Harper still had his gun trained on the fisher. He was one of Unit's highest ranking soldiers. He knew what he was doing. He wouldn't be ordered around when the Doctor's life could be at risk.

An alien creature appears on the other side of the fisher. It tries to get through but it's trapped.

It is a giant lizard like creature that looks part bird.

"Whoa. Look at tha' timorous beastie." The Doctor exclaimed with excitement, his voice imitating the crocodile hunter.

Harper, Mandy, and Clara, even the Brigadier gave him the look that said, "Don't do that again."

"No?" The Doctor asked.

"No." Clara said.

"I've tried worse." The Doctor said.

"Why hasn't it attacked us?" Mandy asked.

"I think I know what the Doctor would say at this moment." Macpherson smiled; it might be his only chance to take the Mickey out of the Doctor. "Do you know the definition of timorous?"

"It could still attack us if it's scared." Mandy observed.

"It's like its trapped, like on the other side of a mirror."Harper examined that the creature seemed to bounce off the portal.

"You stabilized the outer shell. It's exactly like it's tapped inside a mirror." He said without taking his eyes off it. "I'm going back to the TARDIS, see if I can do a scan to find out it is."

"You're going to leave us here alone with it?" Harper protested.

"It's more scared of you than you are of it. "The Doctor assured him, patting him on the shoulder. "Come on, Clara."

Harper raises his gun toward the creature.

"Don't shoot it." The Doctor tells him before he leaves.

After the Doctor leaves Harper still has gun pointed at the creature.

"Lower your weapon, Captain. The Doctor knows what he's doing." Mac said. "We can only hope."

* * *

The Doctor comes back, he has a portable scanner in his hand, Clara in tow. "It's a Sapen."

"What's a Sapen?"

The Doctor nods at the trapped creature. "That's a Sapen."

"It looks like a dinosaur." Harper observed.

"Scientists thought that theropod dinosaurs evolved into birds."

"So they were actually aliens." Harper asked.

"No." The Doctor says. It sounded like he was asking, "Are you dumb?" He probably was. "This one happens to be."

He walks over to the fisher.

"Doctor, don't get close to it." Mac warned him. Frightened or not, he knew the creature would attack.

"It can't get through, can it?" The Doctor puts his hands against the fisher. They do not go through. He puts his ear to it.

The Sapen spoke to the Doctor. Only he could understand it.

Trapped, our world is being threatened. This planet is strange but we must survive. Please do not harm us.

"It's ok; we're not going to harm you." He told it.

"What is it doing?" Mandy asked.

"It's trapped." The Doctor answered. "Its world is being threatened and it's afraid, not just of us. "

_The war had befallen on us. There is nowhere to escape_.

"There was a war. What war?"

_Why? _

The Doctor backed up slightly. That question again. It was still following him. What did it mean?

Clara slowly stepped forward. He didn't need this. If it was the war she was thinking about. "Doctor...I think you should..." But she couldn't continue her sentance. Her head swam with thoughts of concern. They already dealt with the situation. He was a new man again. He didn't need to be reminded what he did to his own people. Perhaps he did think about it all the time. But since the events on Trenzalore he never brought it up again. Perhaps he thought it wasn't his place to bring up those memories or he was just being the Doctor, hiding his hurt. He still hurt from those memories. That was proof enough that he was indeed the same man.

"Doctor, how can you understand it?" Mandy asked him.

"It speaks telepathically." Mac says.

"Don't tell me you can read people's minds." Mandy was skeptical.

The Sapen suddenly launched itself forward, snapping its jaws.

"Shoot it." The Doctor demanded.

"You told me not to." Harper shouted over the creatures roars.

"Would you rather shoot it or do you want to end up as dinner?"

"It almost made a snack out of you a few seconds ago." Harper argued. The Doctor was a bit complicated sometimes and he only just met him.

"Boys." Mandy shouted at them.

The creature came through fully. It ran forward. It made out a sudden shriek and fell to the floor.

Mandy had shot it with a tranq gun.

Later the Doctor explored the rest of U.N.I.T to see how much it had changed. Not much had really except the alien technology they required.

He came to a door that led to the armory. He heard familiar voices on the other side of the door. It was looked. It needed a badge scan to be allowed someone to enter. He took out his psychic paper and pressed it to the plate. The door slid open.

Mandy was talking with the captain when they heard the door open.

To their surprise it was the Doctor. "How'd you get in here?" Harper ignored his soldier instinct to reach for his gun. Just because he was the Doctor didn't mean he could gain access of all areas. Mandy had got in because he allowed her.

"Psychic paper." The Doctor held it up in front of Harper's face and quickly took it away. He barely got a chance to read it, he had to follow it with his head but it was already out of sight.

"Psychic what?" Mandy asked.

"Paper. "

"You used it once before." said Clara. "How exactly does it work?"

"You just think and it shows people what you wan' it to think."

"Cool." Mandy marveled at the paper. It read, U.N.I.T personnel.

To Clara it read, bikini inspector. She blushed. He had been watching too much_ Supernatural_, though trying to get him to stop, she herself had become addicted, watching it in her room in secret. She had just finished the second season.

"I know." The Doctor said in an excited tone.

"No one uses psychic paper anymore." The Captain said. "It's old fashioned."

"I'm old fashioned." The Doctor expression turned into a serious one. "Do you have a problem with that?"

Harper gave him an innocent apologetic look. He felt like he was just told off by his grandfather.

"You can even receive messages on it." The Doctor told Mandy.

"Will you….." Harper was going to say, stop showing off and pay attention to me for once? But something else interrupted him. It was an unmistakable loud screech.

* * *

The U.N.I.T medic examined the creature making sure it was well sedated and not going anywhere. She took noted down on a clip board before leaving the room.

The sedative already warn off. The Sapen was only playing possum. It got free of his restraints, ready to wreak havoc on its capturers and the man who called himself the Doctor.

"What?" The Doctor asked. Suddenly a pain went through his body. He closed his eyes tight, shaking his head.

"I think it's one of those things. Those Sapen things." Harper said.

The Doctor fell to the ground as the twinge of pain increased. "Ah."

"Doctor." Mandy bends down next to him.

Clara approached. "Don't tell me, you're not done yet."

He put out a hand to keep a distance between them. Mandy grabbed his arm. He pulled himself to his knees.

He let out a breath of regeneration energy. "err. Not now."

* * *

The medic came back to the room with The Brigadier and Claudia Brown.

The creature was gone.

"Call the soldiers to arms." Mac ordered to Claudia.

* * *

There came a banging sound from the door, followed by a screech.

Harper raised his gun and pointed it at the door. "We have to get out of here."

"That's the only way out." Mandy was now standing up. The Doctor grabs onto her arm and starts to pull himself up.

Harper looks around the room for another solution.

Mandy looked up. "The ventilation shaft."

"It's not big enough but it'll have to do." Harper said.

"What about you?" Clara asked.

"I won't fit. I'm too big." Standing at 6'1, plus his weight would make the shaft give way under all four of them and they would no doubt become Bird/lizard food. "I'll hold it off. You three go."

The Doctor seemed to have recovered enough. He made his way to the vent, practically pushing Mandy out of the way.

"Hey." She said to him. Clara caught her before she ran into her, as the Doctor climbed up into the ventilation.

* * *

An alarm sounded. Mac, Claudia and a few soldiers were gathered in the Hub.

"Another one of the creatures came through, attacked one of our men." Lester said as he entered.

"Where is the Doctor?" He shouted so everyone in the room could hear him. No one seemed to know.

* * *

Mandy was crawling on her elbows, Clara not far behind, while the Doctor crawled on his hands and knees. Did he know where he was going?

When he had gotten up off the floor he didn't know who he was. All he knew was he had to get out of there.

The girl, the one with the blond hair. He knew someone with blond hair. He led the way without looking back, hoping she was keeping up. "It's got to be around here somewhere Rose." He said. Something about it didn't feel right. He paused."Where's Jack?"

"The captain's holding off that Sapen." Mandy said.

"Do you mind backing up a bit? I'm a bit claustrophobic."

"There's nowhere to back up." She said to him.

"Where'd Rory get off to?" He paused for a moment. Mandy ran into him.

"Why are you stopping for?" This from Clara.

"No, that can't be right." The Doctor said to himself. He couldn't remember any names at the moment. _Remember._ A familiar voice echoed in his mind. There was something important to remember. Who he was. Who was he? Remember. Remember who you are. You're the Doctor. You just changed. Something was wrong with this regeneration. He was overworking himself. He should be resting to allow his body to recuperate.

What was his problem? Mandy thought to herself. He wasn't acting like himself. He was acting like other people. She wasn't familiar with regeneration. Maybe this was the effects of it, before the process was complete.

"I got the map of the building on my locator." She took out the electronic box out of her pocket.

He looked back at her. It was like he suddenly remembered who she was now. "Now you tell me?"

He took the locator from her.

* * *

The banging on the outside of the armory door became louder.

The door caved in. The Sapen was ready to charge.

Harper raised his gun, ready to shoot. Several other guns went off and the creature fell to the floor dead, behind it stood a few U.N.I.T soldiers. Harper lowered his gun with a sigh of relief.

"We're lost aren't we?" Clara asked the Doctor.

"Not lost, just temporarily misplaced." He briefly stops but then starts crawling again. "Can't be far now, Teagan." A pain went through him again. "Ah." He got off his knees and sat against the wall.

"Oh no, you're not passing out on me. I'm not dragging you, out of here." Clara had done that plenty of times.

"I'm just resting." His face was sweaty, and his breath was labored. "I need…."

"What it is?" Clara was becoming worried. By the end of the completion of his regeneration, she'll probably be an emotional wreck, exhausted. It was hard to follow his rapid changing behavior, from how her Doctor acted to something else entirely, a stranger.

"Never mind." The Doctor said. "let's keep going."

They started moving again.

The further they went; they seemed to be getting more lost.

Mandy looked at the locator. "It's upside down." Mandy said, turning right side up.

"Oh, I knew that." The Doctor said.

"No wonder we were getting lost." She climbed over him.

"Eh, watch it."

She looked at him. He was lying on his back.

"Watch the face. I just got it."

"Alright…this says we, take a left. Come on."

She noticed the Doctor was straggling behind.

He looked horrible. It looked like he was struggling to stay awake. He really needed rest.

* * *

The U.N.I.T. medics carried the body of the creature away.

"There's still one running loose." Claudia pointed out. "Why did you have to mess with the Temporal in the first place?" She asked Mac.

Just what he needed, Claudia Brown getting on his nerves.

Mandy, Clara and the Doctor made their way to the exit that led into the Hub. She should probably head to the medical bay. The Doctor had passed out. At least he didn't have to drag him a long distance.

She opened the vent.

Claudia saw the vent to the shaft open. A blond head peered out. Mandy.

The other girl, the brunette one came into view." Help me." She said to Claudia, her voice filled with desperation. She saw the Doctor's unconscious form was visible through the opening. The brunette, girl, Clara, holding him in her arms.

Claudia motioned for two soldiers to help. "Get him down from there." The soldiers grabbed him under the arms and pulled him out. "Gently." Claudia scolded.

They set him down gently on the floor and then moved to help Mandy down.

"Get him to sick bay." Claudia demanded.

* * *

Clara tried to go see him. They put him in a private room, cut off from everything else.

She wondered why they wouldn't let her see him. She wasn't going to take this. She demanded she see him.

"Ma'am. It is in our best interest that the Doctor is not disturbed while he's recuperating." A soldier explained to her, going on his way.

"He forgot me." Clara said. "He doesn't even remember me." She said to Mandy. "I told him to remember me."

"It's not his fault." Mandy said. "Who knows how this regeneration process works. Might take a while to get his memory back. Once he's done, he'll be his old self again."

"You say it like it's that easy." _ He won't be his old self._ Clara realized what she was doing. Taking her frustration on this young girl. It wasn't just frustration she felt but also grief. Weren't they're five stages of it. The first one being denial? But denying what? Denial that he couldn't be the Doctor. But she had shown concern for him. That man lying in that room, just within reach. She shook her head, closing her eyes to the tone of her words. "I'm...I didn't mean..."

"I know." The blonde girl said. "You just lost someone...it's only natural." She had gone through the same thing when her grandfather had died, just last year.

"How old are you?" Clara asked, changing the subject.

"Nineteen."

"Nineteen. You better watch out." Clara teased. "The Doctor has a thing for young girls...gingers mostly. You'll be safe. So he won't try anything. I doubt he even knows how that works."

"Thanks. " Mandy smiled. "I'll keep that in mind."

* * *

His eyes felt too heavy he could not open him.

A pain throbbed in his head. His mind seemed to race.

He shouldn't have had overworked himself. But he couldn't resist the excitement of trouble. Whoever he was.

He could hear someone talking but to him it sounded muffled. There seemed to be noises, no voices in his head. Their words were incoherent. But they seemed to being asking something. The tones were accusing some of them mixed with sadness.

He groaned. He had one major headache. They grew worse when he tried to force himself to remember who he was. With it came a new bolt of pain. It traveled from his brain to his hearts and down his spine. Something wasn't right with this new body of his. It must be the exhaustion. He could sense something was different in his mind.

He had to stay awake and sane no matter how painful. If he gave in, the Doctor would be lost forever. Who was the Doctor?

Two figures grabbed him under the arms and carried him out of the room. They could be either friend or foe. He didn't show that he was in pain.

He felt his consciousness slip away. He tried to stay awake but fighting off the voices made him more exhausted than he already was.

Mandy saw the Doctor's body relax in the soldier's grips. He had become conscious for only a few seconds but then passed out again. She found herself caring about him, hoping that he was alright. Before he had suffered the after effects of his regeneration, she had noticed there was something about him. There was also something about his eyes. The intensity of them, they were that of a person that have seen and done so much. They were filled with emotions Mandy could not detect all at once. Something she could pick out was his excitement, his eyes lit up with it. It made his eyes glisten like a child's on Christmas morning. There was something about his behavior, something she hoped that would stay there, and was not just a side effect. He walked with such confidence and seemed to take care of a situation without even blinking. He always seemed to know what he was doing.

* * *

Mandy and Claudia walked into the barracks where the temporally kept the Sapen.

Mac, Lester and several soldiers were already in the room.

They were studying the creature as one of the U.N.I.T medics, keeping it heavily sedated.

Knowing the Doctor, he would have been against killing it. Mac thought.

"What do we do with it?" Lester asked. He thought that killing it would be the best answer.

"Now would be a good time to ask the Doctor." Mac said. If he was here.

"Unfortunately he's not available at the moment." Lester wasn't amused.

"His regeneration isn't stabilized yet."

"What do you mean stabilized?" Mandy asked. Even though she had read up on the Doctor and what he was like she didn't understand this whole regeneration thing.

"His mind isn't." The others ignored Lester's sarcasm.

"It's not yet complete." Mac said about the regeneration. It wasn't simple. The Doctor was bound to be a little bonkers at first, even a little of that might stay behind. What happens in the previous regeneration influences the other. If through traumatic events, the effects could carry into the next.

"He was acting a bit strange." Mandy accepted the explanation. She didn't question Mac's knowledge. He had worked for U.N.I.T longer than any of them.

"That's the Doctor for you." Claudia said. No one really payed attention to her statement. She furrowed her brows. How would she know something like that? It just seemed that was the way he was. It sounded right. The U.N.I.T files never described what he was like in past regenerations. He was just known as a great man.

"No I mean he acted like he didn't know where he was or who he was. He called me and the Captain different people, like he didn't even know us."

Mac did the explaining the best he could. The Doctor could probably do better. "During the first few hours of regeneration Time Lords can suffer from confusion, erratic behavior, extended periods of unconsciousness and/or selective amnesia."

Claudia wondered how Mac knew so much about regeneration. Perhaps there was something she had missed on the files. But she had read them thoroughly twice. Unless he had some other files somewhere. She didn't really want to know, deciding not to bother with it. She preferred the Doctor being a mystery.

"He's overworked himself." Claudia said. "He's the kind of person willing to walk straight into danger and gets a thrill out of it. The fact that he just regenerated didn't stop him.

A familiar screech rang out from a few halls away.

"There's the other Sapen. " Mandy said.

"Have your soldiers round it up." Mac told Lester. "We'll sedate it like the other one. "

"I give the orders around here Brigadier. It's a no brainer that you and the Doctor will get along swimmingly. You both don't take a liking for respecting authority."

"I have done this job longer than you have, man." Said the Brigadier.

Mandy couldn't help but give in to her smile.

"You heard what he said." Lester said to the soldiers. "Find it and sedate it."

The soldiers left the room. Mandy wondered why Harper wasn't among them, or Clara.

* * *

Clara had gone back to the TARDIS. Even she wasn't the same. Her interior had changed. Clara ran her fingers over the buttons, careful not to touch them, half expecting that the TARDIS would play some nasty trick on her. She looked up at the central column. She didn't know who she was saying this to, deciding it was intended for any one willing to listen, "Please let him be alright."

* * *

The Doctor woke, sitting bolt upright in bed. The pain in his head was back. But it was a quick twinge then it was gone. At first he thought he was in a hospital room but then he remembered where he was. He was in U.N.I.T. In the medical bay he assumed. He got up from the bed and went over to the door. It was locked. He groaned in frustration and pain. He put a hand to his head. His hand instinctively went to his pants pocket. He took out the familiar metal tube with prongs at the end. They opened like a flower and a green light admitted out of it. The lock on the door clicked. He turned the knob and the door opened. He went through the door swiftly.

Captain Charles Owen Harper patrolled the hallways keeping an eye out for the creature or the Doctor. He had heard no word from either him or Mandy yet. He shouldn't have left the other soldiers but finding the Doctor was the best priority at the moment.

He stopped in the middle of the hall when he heard the creatures 'call. It sounded like how a hawk sounded when it found its prey. Harper took off at a jogging pace in the direction of the sound.

The Doctor dreaded that he had gotten up. But he couldn't rest. He felt the anticipation to explore. He couldn't just sit in bed. He felt he had to take care of something and he would not stop until it was taken care of. Then he couldn't wait what was in store next. He liked this personality. It was somewhat slightly familiar and new. And it was comforting.

He didn't dare want to stop. He still did not know who he was. But he had sense that he was a man who never stopped. What would life be if you didn't live life on the edge every second of everyday? That would be no life at all. A voice that was his, he was sure. But it was spoken with a different voice, his previous life. That was something they could agree on.

He smiled to himself. He was going to like this new him. He stopped for a second, looking down the corridor taking in his surroundings. He twirled the sonic screwdriver in his finger and put it back in his pocket.

He started walking again. While he walked he started thinking. There was more reason why he started never stopped. So he wouldn't think.

He had to find that blond girl. What was her name? Mary, Amanda, Mandy? Mandy that was it. He needed someone….no he didn't need anyone. He just needed to get something figured out. He would figure it out himself. His mind seemed to be arguing with him. His conscience part of him that was sane. Did he even have a conscience anymore? He needed to stop thinking and move on. If he looked back…

He tried to shy away from that reasonable part of him mind, his sane side. But it didn't give up without a fight. Old faces of old friends flashed into his mind, and then most recent memories, a red haired girl, crying in a graveyard, vanishing before his eyes, a little girl waiting in her garden. But soon as memories flashed in and out he forgot them again. His mind was in shock form over exhaustion. Mustn't think. He told himself.

He needed someone so he wouldn't think. Think about what? It was so noisy in his head again.

His surroundings began to spin around him. His mind seemed to go blank again. Why was he forgetting who he was again? Why? There was that word again.

"Shut up." He said out loud particularly to no one. He started to stumble. He rested his shoulder against the wall.

"No." He said to himself. He had to keep moving. He pulled himself away from the wall. He had to sort of force himself away from it. Though he willed his body to move it didn't seem to obey him.

The lights above weren't helping any. It just added dizziness to the mix. He looked down at the floor but kept walking.

A bird screech made him look up.

The Sapen sprang toward him.

Harper reached the end of another corridor and turned into another. There stood the creature in the middle of the corridor. It was about to charge at someone.

Harper shot it with his tranquilizer. It managed to take a few steps before it fell to the floor. On the other side of the creatures fallen body was the Doctor. He should have known it was the Doctor. He would've rolled his eyes if he hadn't seen the state of him.

The Doctor looked about to collapse. Harper stepped over the creature racing over to the Doctor. He grabbed him by the shoulders to keep him from falling. He leaned the Doctor back, so that he was leaning against the wall. The Doctor started to slide down the wall. Harper put his hands on the Doctor's arm and managed to bring him down to the floor in a sitting position.

He heard the sound of scrapping feet against the floor. That couldn't be mistaken. The lizard bird like creature was on its feet.

Someone else shot it before Harper could turn his tranquilizer on it. Instead of it being stunned it had been shot with bullets.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Harper got up. He faced the young soldier who had shot it.

"My duty, Captain." The soldier said nervously, his eyes wide. He saluted to the Captain. "Is he ok?" The Private asked, nodding to the Doctor.

Harper bent back down. He checked the Doctor's pulse. It was a little thready. He thought he felt four heart beats instead of two.

He shook his head disbelieving. "He'll be alright." He looked back at the private. The younger man seemed lost. "Oi." Harper shouted. "Get him to medical." He said to Private Scone. "And make sure he stays there."

* * *

Mandy entered the sick bay. She was surprised to see the Doctor awake. He still looked tired. The look he had on his face made him look impossibly ancient. She knew he lived many lives but she didn't know his age. None of them did. He looked about her age when she had first met him. He could pass for a young man in his twenties to mid thirties. Mandy was nineteen she would be twenty in six months time.

"You scared me for a second there." Mandy said as she walked in.

"This regeneration isn't complete. It should be by tomorrow." He wasn't looking at her. He was looking at something perhaps at something he could see. Who knew his horizons were higher than hers. He fixed the pillow and straightened himself up.

"You should have been resting."

"And miss out on all the excitement, fat chance."

"How's your head?"

"Still ringing." Why was she caring about him? She just met him. People always trusted him when they met him. And shouldn't the medical doctor be asking him that? Then again he was glad it was Mandy."Things are starting to clear up though." He had the voices under control now. He hadn't heard them for awhile. But his mind was working, going off in all different directions like it should be. All the synapses seemed to have fully healed.

"Back there you called me someone else."

'Did I?" He didn't want to hear what he called her. He already knew. It was obvious.

"You called me Rose." She saw the expression on his face. It was blank. "And you called Clara, Tegan."

There was a deep sadness and worry in his eyes when she mentioned Clara. "She's alright, just wondered off somewhere."

"The TARDIS I presume. That's just like her. Wouldn't stray to far. You know I finally have a companion that listens when I tell them not to wonder off."

She took her eyes off him and looked down at the ground. "You called the Captain Jack and Rory."She cautiously lifted her head back up and looked at him. The sadness was still there but it was dull.

"That would happen." His voice was flat. It scared her. Because she didn't know what he was feeling or thinking. He must hate her for nosing around, bringing up his past. Then his voice took on a more joyful tone. "Post-regeneration trauma." He explained to her.

"It was like you didn't know who you were."

"That's the effects of Post-regeneration trauma. Can cause me to forget things, mainly who I am. I'm upset about that. I should wear a name tag. I love name tags."

"And now?" She asked.

"Now what?"

"Who you are?"

"I know who I am but I still don't. Does that make sense?" He didn't feel quite "him" yet.

"No." He wasn't making any sense. At least the effects were finally wearing off.

"We'll find out soon." He got a sense of what he was like. But he didn't really know.

She was about to ask him what he meant but he had passed out again.

She pulled up a chair and sat by his bedside. She didn't know what made her do so, she grabbed his hand.

* * *

"You done now?" Clara asked. He had joined her in the TARDIS.

"Yep. All done."

"Are you sure?" She asked cautiously.

"Twenty-four hours of rest was all I needed. I didn't act too out of it did I?"

"You were acting a lot like your old self at first." Clara said.

"I retain my old personality until the process is complete and my new one' s fully formed." He explained.

"Is the old part of you conscious then?"

"Yes."

"I watched him die...twice. Your body dies and then you're consciousness. That's horrible."

"I don't feel it a second time." He focused on the buttons on the console, Clara took this as the end of the conversation and he didn't want to talk about it anymore.

She turned her back to him, starting out into space, drumming her fingers together.

The Doctor looked up from the controls. "Wha's the ma'er?"

Again, his accent was more heavy. She could tell that he was worried.

"Nothing." She told him, uncomfortably. She doubted he believed her, so she said, "It's just that..." But how would he react? Yell, kick her out? No. He wouldn't. She decided she didn't care how he would react. He was the Doctor. Her Doctor. But not her other Doctor. "I...miss him." She told him. "I mean, the other you." A long pause seemed to follow. She sat down in the pilot chair. He sat down next to her. His response was calm and rather quiet. But despite that, it seemed to have some disconcerting edge to it.

"Sorry for your loss." He said without looking at her. It was like he was talking about someone else entirly, instead of himself, like she had lost a relative.

She leaned forward in the chair to get a good look at him. It was then she realized there was just as much hurt in his eyes. She put a hand on his. He looked down at her hand like it was a strange foreign object. Then he gazed at her with curiosity. Her own brown ones met his. His eyes were intensifying. She felt the sudden urge to look away, afraid to see what else lay behind those eyes if she stared any deeper. But she didn't look away.

There was a light in his eyes, that she'd always seen. She might have imagined it, but the light seemed to slowly be going out. Like a candle being snuffed out in the rain_._

She didn't want to accept this man, as the Doctor but in a way she already had. She didn't ask him anymore questions. They just sat in silence, breaking eye contact. Their hands returned to themselves. She didn't know who took their hand away first. She wanted to ask him how he felt. _I can't imagine. Dying over, and over, like he does. I have had a hundred, maybe thousands of lives. Though he has had a lot less, nothing can compare to what he has to go through every time he dies._

She couldn't decipher what it really was she saw in his eyes. _Still I wonder..._(she mentally scolded herself)_No more twenty questions Clara. He is the Doctor. I was created to save him._

The real question was, what lay ahead for them now?

Her curiousity did get the better of her though. "One question. Why Yorkshire?"

"Eh?" He asked if he didn't quite get what she was asking.

"Why do you have a Yorkshire accent." She supposed she sort of knew. It was like this regeneration was specially made for her. But that wasn't how it worked, did it? He had no control over his regenerations, but maybe the self-conscious had an influence.

"I dun' know...sometimes I pick up on things." He tried to choose his words carefully. "It was you."

"What was me?" It was her turn to be lost on his meaning.

He refrained from telling her that she was the last thing that he had been thinking about before he died. That's pretty much all he remembered, well apart from dying on Trenzalore, Clara jumping into his time stream, that was all he remembered. There probably wasn't any more to remember, apart from the cause of his death. That was were his mind drew a blank. There were gaps in his memory. He didn't need to bring Clara into this. He just regenerated. Both of them didn't need this right now, so he did what he did best, lie. "Probably the flirty bit." He told her.

"Yeah, so it's all me." Clara said in a way that seemed like a kid being blamed for something another sibling did.

"Clar-a." He said, still prononcing her name wrong.

"It's Claire-a." She corrected.

"That's what I said."

She hung her head in frustration but she couldn't stay mad at him for long. She had to accept him eventually. But what would that come to mean? What was she supposed to do?

For right now, she would do only what she knew. Save the Doctor. After all she was his impossible girl. ALWAYS.


	3. Dead in Dallas

Description: The Doctor and Clara got to Dallas, Texas, 2049. Vampires live out in the open. Bodies of young woman are being found drained of blood. Are there really vampires or is it something more sinister?

AN: (alternate title: (The Doctor does Dallas) After this chapter be sure to check out 'Twelve' my series of one shots of how twelve and Clara's relationship grow. Warning it contains some Whouffle.

* * *

_I tell my myself not to fall in love. It's rule number twelve. Never fall in love with the Doctor. It's a trick I have to two sometimes twice a day. But it's too late, I think I'm already falling in love. I can't completely stand him sometimes, but I love him. _

_The fact that I flirted with him and he flirted back was unexpected. He was a flustered boy all grown up. _

_He still feels like a stranger to me. He is different in every way, but he still has the same feel about him. Those ancient eyes, and his one intent, Save people. It seemed that it was all he knew._

_I am no longer his impossible girl. I'm his pretty girl. And I can't decide if that's a good thing._

* * *

_2049_

The TARDIS materialized back into existence. A dark haired man stepped out, followed by a short structured woman. She came up a little past his shoulders, but not by much.

She would have to get used to his change in hight, among other things.

"Dallas, Texas. 2049. Imagine, just ten years from now you'll be landing on Mars."

Clara looked at him wide eyed, "Can we go there sometime?"

"No. Already been."

She didn't know if he'd meant he'd been to the Mars landing or been there too many times. "On the other hand, the ice warriors might not be too happy."

They entered a small bar and grill.

Clara had a seat in a booth while the Doctor went up to the bar. She asked him if he wanted some coffee. Without an answer she poured him a cup anyway.

She seemed to keep eyeing a man sitting two seats down from the Doctor. The man was rather pale looking and he was wearing sunglasses.

"He's a vampire." The young waitress whispered to the Doctor.

"Really?" The Doctor said with excitement.

He started chatting up a waitress. Clara was getting impatient. Her stomach was starting to grumble.

Finally he came over and the waitress took their order. Well, the Doctor's order.

When their food arrived Clara took a slice of pizza, setting it onto her plate. It didn't look quite appetizing. "Why did you order everything on?"

"Because plain is just too. .plain."

Clara gave a sigh, giving up. She took a bite.

Just as the Doctor was about to take a bite of pizza, a scream that sounded nearby cut through the air.

"Time to run again?" Clara said. Before she slid out of the booth the Doctor was already on his feet.

The scream had come from outside. Around the back of the of the restaurant a woman who was taking out the garbage, was staring down at the ground. It took a few seconds for Clara to realize what she was staring at. A pair of legs, feet clad in high heels were sticking out from a pile of garbage bags.

The police soon arrived, surprisingly quick. They discovered that the woman's body was drained of blood.

"You can't pretend you're a PI." Clara told the Doctor. "What are we reverting to, identify theft?"

"It worked on Supernatural. Those handsome devils."

A female officer approached them. "Sheriff Jacqulyn Daniels." She said.

"Sheriff Daniels, is it?" With some effort the Doctor shifted his attention. "I'm AAgent Townes." He said pulling out his psychic paper, "this is Van Zandt, she's new."

"Is that supposed to be some sort of joke?" The Sheriff asked.

Clara cocked an eyebrow. "Beg pardon?"

The Sheriff shot them a look. "Your names."

"Look, are you suggesting.."

"Either you're pulling my leg, " The Sheriff continued, "Or your superior officer jas one warped sense of humor."

The Doctor sighed. "Yeah, and people probably call you Jackie, right?"

"They call me Sheriff Daniels." The phone she carried on her started riniging. "Look can you excuse me a moment?"

"Sure, take your time." The Doctor said. He waited, watching her walk away from the scene.

"Hey, do you think she..."

"Stop." Clara said. "Just stop."

"I'm just saying, they write songs about all this stuff."

"They also write songs about going to jail." Clara said. "Let's just try not to get arrested, ok?"

The sheriff came back. "All right, let's get to it." The officer gave him the ok to check the body. "Two puncture wounds, left side of the throat." The Doctor stated. "The only visible injury." He lifted one of the dead girl's hands.

"Maybe she scratched him." Clara suggested.

"Not as much blood as you'd think there should be." The Doctor cleared his throat. "Not nearly enough. You know what they look like, on her neck there? Bite marks. Like, ah fangs."

"You mean some sort of animal attacked her?" asked Clara.

"No." The Doctor angled his head up at her, dark eyes wide and bright. "Come on Clara, you know what it looks like."

"It looks like a date that went a bit over the top."Clara said. "Doesn't look like she put up much of a fight though. Maybe she knew her attacker or she had something in her system to dull her senses and let her attack her. with some sort of weapon."

"Yeah, or the killer had incisors filed down to points." Sheriff Daniels said.

"Case in point, I think we can narrow it down to a list of suspects. We're looking at vampire." He turned to one of the other officers. "Put an APB out on Dracula." Clara gave him a look. "I'm just saying it looks like your classic vampire bite." The Doctor said.

"Or we should find out if she was...possibly seeing someone with a heart beat." Clara said still skeptical.

"Just saying." The Doctor repeated.

* * *

Next they went to the police station and waited to talk to the victim's mother.

Clara was doing research on the office computer. "Did you know there are dozens of websites on vampirism and any number of them have instructions on how to drink from a victim."

The Doctor cocked his head. "And this surprises you because?"

Clara ignored him.

Sheriff Pegborn entered the room. "I've got a couple of names we may want to look at but meanwhile Tara Jenkin's mother just came in."

"I'll talk to her." Clara pushed back from the desk. "You keep digging." She said to the Doctor. On her way out, she decided to look back at him, expecting him to refuse. When she gave him a glance, there was something that appeared to be an expression of relief on his face. He seemed reserved. Clara hoped he wouldn't always be like that. Her flustered clever boy, now a quiet, grumpy old man.

He liked keeping to himself. He prefered to do research and not talk to someone he didn't know, let alone someone who's just lost a loved one. He could talk to Clara. He found it easy. Course he talked to someone if necessary. _I'd do anything necessary._ He found himself thinking. But would he actually?

The sheer aloneness made him think. He didn't want to have to. So he busied himself. Despite that he still thought.

* * *

"Mrs. Jenkins. I'm Dectective Van Zandt" Clara said. It was the Doctor's idea. Somehow she had to get him to stop watching _Supernatural_.

Mrs. Jenkins eyes looked exhausted as they lifted to Clara's, a combination of grief, guilt, and futigue. Clara would have expected those feelings in the Doctor's eyes. But she had detected nothing. "You're helping with...what happened to Tara."

"That's right. I'm very sorry for your loss."

"Thank you. Will I be able to see her?"

"I think I can arrange that for you."

"Can you tell me how she...what happened to her." Mrs. Jenkins's voice hitched. "They won't tell me anything. It's worse not knowing."

"She was killed. She was found in an alley. We believe she knew her killer. There were no signs that she..suffered." Clara knew Mrs. Jenkins was going to ask.

"An accident then?" There was peading in the mother's voice. "Something that got out of hand?"

"No. I'm sorry. We don't believe that it was an accident. What do you know about your daughter's recent activities, her compmanions, the men in her life?"

"I wouldn't know. We don't comunicate much. I wasn't a good mother."

"That has to be the most rubbish thing I've ever heard." Clara said.

"I wasn't. I was twenty when she was born. And I wasn't a good mother. It was all having parties and having fun and where can we go next. When I left her father we used her as a weapon. I remarried. Now I have an eight year old daughter. I'm a good mother to her but I lost Tara long ago. Now I can never get her back."

"I recently lost a friend." Clara blurted out. "He..died."

"It's not the same as losing a child."

"No, I suppose it's not." She mentally cursed herself for saying the wrong thing.

"The friend you lost, was he killed?"

"Yes. And I loved him very much. But the man I'm with now...he feels like...a replacement." Clara shook her head. "Sorry. There's more important matters than my problems. I want to help find who killed your daughter, not only to get justice for her, but it'll help make me better."

Mrs. Jenkins nodded.

Something came to Clara's mind. "Did she have any particular interest in the occult by any chance?'

"The occult? I can't say. She went through a phase several years ago where she paid Psycics great gobs of money. She dambled in Wicca..

"That's witchcraft." Clara said.

"But that was when she was a teenager. You know how teenagers are."

"They can be very akward years." Clara recalled several memories of her 'rebel' phase. She even experimented with her room mate at Univeristy. Nina her name was. Hey, she was trying to find herself. She had had a lot of relationships, just more than half of them were men.

"She said there were too many rules and wanted to take the easy way out, for some magic potion to make everything perfect...will you find who killed her?"

"I'll find him."

* * *

The Doctor and Clara stayed at a small Inn. They had separate rooms of course but the were jointed rooms.

Both of them hardly gotten any sleep.

The next morning, another female victim was found. Finding Tara's killer had been put on hold.

"The bodies been drained like the others." The coroner said. "Probably a vampire gone rogue."

"What's with your lots fascination with vampires?" The Doctor asked.

"They came out of hiding twenty-four years ago. Where have you been living, in a cave?" said the coroner.

"No. Not recently." said the Doctor. "I was in a cave once. Met some nice lovely...cave people." His Yorkshire accent sounded heavy, even his tone in voice sounded different. If Clara didn't know any better, to her it seemed like he was an entirely different person. He used different tones to get certain things that he wanted. "At first I didn't know which one of you apes were going to make it. Then you take a bite of an apple you're not supposed to and invent trouser."

Both Clara and the coroner looked at him peculiarly.

"Just don't touch the body." The little man said and swiftly left the room.

Clara watched him go. When she turned her attention back to the Doctor he was pulling back the sheet covering the cadaver. "Doctor, he told you not to touch it." She reminded him.

There was one other thing about him that didn't change. He couldn't resist touching something that was interesting. If the Doctor thought a dead body was interesting...she felt a shutter within her.

Their first trip and she was starting to notice. He seemed a bit...darker. A part of him that was unrecognisable. Like most would, she turned a blind eye toward it. She could still sense something was wrong, with him. She couldn't quite but a finger on it.

He examined the bite marks on the victim's neck. "Not consistent with a space fish."

"I'd believe that over vampires." Clara said.

"Hmm." He covered the body back up, looking over at Clara. "You hungry? Let's do lunch."

* * *

After lunch, yet another body was found. Clara talked to the victim's husband, Richard Savio. His wife had been working at an underground club. All of the female victims had in some way been connected to it.

They were accompanied by Sheriff Daniels and one of her officers, McNab. The Doctor didn't seem to thrilled about it.

"I thought we could use another pair of eyes." Daniels said. "You know, strength in numbers."

"I specialize in raiding clubs." McNab said.

"You've only raided one and it wasn't a vampire one." said Daniels.

"Ok, repeat after me." Clara said, "Vampires do not exsist."

"Vampires do not exist." McNab recited.

Clara turned to the Doctor, "What's that look for?"

"Speculation. Most legends have basis of fact. Vlad the impalor, from Dracula lore. It's intersetin, dun ye think?"

"It's interesting that I'm surrounded by lamebrains."

"Labrains to some." Said the Doctor. "open minded to others."

"Maybe we should have stopped by the market and picked up some garlic and ease those open minds."

"Really?" The Doctor said. Clara gave him a stony stare. "Tha's means no." He muttered.

They paused as they reached the entrance of the underground club.

"Stick together through the tunnels." Daniels ordered. "We can work in pairs once we get to the club."

"No." The Doctor said, "We split up. Tha' way we can cover more ground." He didn't take well to someone else's authority.

Clara went to the bar.

"What can I get you?" The woman bartender asked.

"Whoever's in charge."

"Is there a problem?"

"There will be if you don't get me whoever runs this place." She placed the psychic paper on the table.

"Sure." The bartender said. She put a hand over the ear piece she was wearing. "Allessria. I've got a cop at station three looking for the manager. Sure thing." She removed her hand. "He'll be right down."

She knew what she saw when she looked at him. The same look she had seen in the Doctor's eyes. She saw it in his pitch-dark eyes. She saw a stranger. His intentions were the same though, helping people, saving planets, and civilizations. Was that enough to accept him as the Doctor? It was more than just the physical changes, she sort of accepted those. She saw a darkness in those eyes. Maybe it's always been there. The monster hiding within him more prominent. She pushed the thought aside. He was not a monster, just a wounded soul.

The man before her was the monster. He led her back, away from the crowd, to a door marked private. Clara didn't notice she was being watched, closely and carefully.

"It's an honor that you're here. Wha can I get you to drink?"

"This isn't a social call."

"No, of course not. " Despite her answer he poured two glasses. "Well then what did you call for?"

"Tara Jenkins. She was murdered a few days ago. She went to your club."

"A lot of woman come to my club."

"A lot of woman who come to your club end up dead."

Allessria just smiled. "Just three woman."

"Did you have any connection with them?" Clara asked.

"You can stop the cop act." He said. "I've been watching you...and him. But mostly you."

"You didn't answer my question."

"I did know Tara. She would often come alone." He leaned closer to Clara, making the hair on the back of her neck prickle. "As I call she was going to meet a friend or friends. I don't believe she did."

"Underground clubs don't work that way."

"Things change." He watched her over his glass as he took a sip." As do times."

"And how much time did you spend with Tara?"

"Quite a lot on her last visit. I gave her a tour, bought her a few drinks. Danced with her."

"Did you tell her you were a vampire?" Clara demanded. "That you could turn her?"

"Yes, to the first. It's part of the atmosphere. Do you believe in vampires Clara?"

"I believe in the susceptible, the foolish and those who exploit them."

"Is there anything else?"

"Did you see Tara leaving with anyone in particular?"

"I can't say that I did. I believed she danced with any number of people. Feel free to ask my staff and I'll be happy to ask myself."

"You do that."

"Here, let me give you my card." As he passed it over to Clara, his fingers brushed down her palm, lingered for just a moment. Then he smiled. "I tend to sleep days."

* * *

Clara went back to the club alone later that night. Normally she didn't wonder off when he told her not to. She didn't listen to him like she used to. He was different. He had changed after all, and she herself found herself changing, but into what?

"Alone this time?" The bouncer sneered.

"Yeah," She punched him and he bent over. "Just little old me." She walked through the crowd. She was lead to the back room.

"Enter, Allessria." He said to the voice command. Inside candles were lit and the walls were lined with screens displaying images of various sections of the club.

"Please, have a seat." He motioned toward a chair across from him. Clara pulled in the odd looking chair and sat down.

Clara looked around, gazing at the screens. "Some view."

"My way of being surrounded and alone at the same time. You'd understand that."

"You talk as if you know me. You look at me as though you do. But you don't."

"Oh, I think I do. I saw the understanding of violence, of power, and the taste for it in you. You have that in common with him. Wine?"

"No." Despite her answer he poured two glasses.

* * *

The Doctor had missed something. He asked the Inn keeper how many floors the Inn had.

"Four, not including the basement."

"Ok, if you're a vampire and didn't like sunlight where would you

"Sewers." Clara said.

"Wha'? No. I'd like to stay one more night, at least..."

"Three days, Doctor..."

"Dun' argue."

Were five female vampires.

"You know who we are." The creepy pale girls said in unison.

"Yes. Of course." The Doctor didn't know exactly or what they actually were. "Wait, no."

"We are the members of the dark dominion."

"Oh right." The Doctor's mind drew a blank. "Sorry, you've lost me."

"Our master was trapped at the center of Krop Tor."

"No. You can't be." He felt a wave of fear, basically of the unknown. But he was more afraid of himself. There was lot he didn't understand. There were things even he couldn't explain.

"We know who you are, Doctor." They take a step toward him. He took out his sonic screwdriver, pointing it at them. "Don't come any closer."

One of them touched his shoulder and he is forced to his knees by the sheer incredible power, an ancient power, unspeakable evil.

Clara entered the room. She saw the Doctor on the floor. "Doctor." She instantly started to run to him.

"Don't come close." He warned. "My it's lonely in here." The creature inside him said, in his voice.

"No you don't. Stop it."

Clara didn't "It...it's like you're possessed."

"It's because I am."

The other 'vampires" spoke in unison. "We have seen his hearts. He's lonely. You know why he still lets you travel with him? He doesn't really care about you."

The Doctor still struggled with the demon trying to take control over him, trying to access his every dark thought. "Clara, don't listen to it."

"He can't feel anymore. That's why he needs you."

"I know the Doctor. Whatever he needs me for, I'm there for him. Nothing you say can or will change my mind."

"There's a lot of things he hasn't told you. There's a lot of things he hasn't told you. You don't know what they call him."

"What do they call him?"

"He's known among many. The calm before the storm, the fallen angel, the destroyer. The destroyer of worlds, the destroyer of hearts." Soon the valeyard and the beast."

"Clara you have to get out. They're not vampires."

"Yeah, I figured that much. There must be a way we can fight them."

"We can't. It's more than a million years old. It's trying to take me over. You gotta get it out of me."

"How?"

"Just...find something."

She left, coming back seconds later with a bucket of water. She throws the water on him.

Black smoke comes out of his mouth and the same thing happened to the other 'vampires'. The black smoke flew out the window. The young girls they were possessing dropped to the floor.

"What the hell was that?" Clara asked.

"Exactly." The Doctor started to stand up, Clara helping him. "Where's you get that?"

"From the church." Clara said.

The church across the street was where she had gotten it.

"What was in that water?" The Doctor asked the priest.

"Nothing. It's holy water. It's the only thing that really seems to work on them."

"It's got to be your strong belief, your faith." The Doctor said.

"I sense you're not a believer, Doctor."

"I'm a believer of a lot of things."

* * *

The Doctor and Clara headed for the TARDIS. "This goes beyond the Universe. Beyond me. We've got to leave."

"So Allersia just a nut job that thought he was a vampire. But the other victims were killed by whatever take over those girls." As she finished summing up the past days events, he didn't answer her.

"What it said. Was it true?"

"Of course not. Those things lie. That's what they do." He looked up from the console, at Clara. "Dun' look at me like tha'."

"What?"

"Don't sympathize an old man. You're supposed to respect him, what he's done. The stories I could tell you. You wouldn't want to hear my stories. No one wants to hear an old man's stories."

"Oh, cheer up, you old brood." Clara teased. She then looked down at the console when she sensed his eyes staring through her. "I wouldn't mind hearing some of your stories."

* * *

He dropped her off back home.

"This it then?" Clara asked. "You're leaving me now?"

He wanted to. She reminded him of the painful memories. She was a constant reminder.

But so it happens, she might be his only salvation.

Clara Oswald. She was still impossible to him, but in a way he didn't understand her. There were a lot of things he didn't understand.

"What do you think?" He turned toward the TARDIS.

"Doctor!" As she called him he turned back to her. "What does that mean?"

"Whatever you wan' it, Oswald." He bustled off to his snog box, without looking back.

* * *

He dropped her off at home after that. She was surprised that he came back the next Wednesday like he promised, a life time ago. A Wednesday. He had told her. Though she wasn't surprised when she saw the TARDIS parked at the corner of the street near the bus stop.

They went on several more adventures.

Then he lost her. Clara died. Because of him. He killed her. It wasn't his fault, Mandy convinced him. The thing was possessing Clara. Still he would always blame himself.


	4. The Dark Side of the Moon

Episode 3: The Dark Side of the Moon

* * *

The Doctor was on the phone with Macpherson.

"Where are you?" Mac asked. Everyone called him Mac. He never went by his formal title.

"In the TARDIS." The Doctor answered.

"You're not leaving are you? You have a track record of disappearing." At the same time, they both put their feet up. Macpherson put his feet on his desk and the Doctor put his feet up on the console.

"Not yet. I still have things to handle with the fishers."

"What do they mean Doctor?" It seemed to take a long time for the Doctor to answer.

"Something is ripping time and space apart just to get through."

"What about the other creatures coming through?"

"I'd say consequences."

Mac pondered why the Doctor was telling him this. Surely he would keep this to himself and try to handle it himself. He hasn't changed much from his grandfather's description of him, a stubborn old man, who prefers to work alone. "You seem to not trust the others. But take a liking to me."

"I feel like a family friend to you, don't I? It's only fair I tell you so you can understand."

"Much appreciated Doctor." Mac said sarcastically. "Now come on back to base."

The Doctor hung up the phone. He had no choice in the matter. He groaned in frustration.

He could of course leave, but he needed to solve what was causing the holes in time.

"Never done saving them." He said and left the TARDIS.

They had another situation that possibly involved a time fissure. Some animals had gone missing at the local zoo.

The Doctor was talking to the young zoo keeper. A hot young female zoo keeper.

_Of course she has to be hot._ Mandy thought. She wasn't jealous. But why do men always go after "dumb attractive." ones?

"You seem a bit nervous when you talk to woman." Mandy said to the Doctor.

He had just got done talking to the woman that was starting to flirt with him. He seemed eager to get away from her.

"I do?" The Doctor asked. He knew he didn't know how to handle woman who were more affection toward him than usual. He was too old to understand how that worked.

"When they start getting too friendly you mostly try to avoid them. People will think you're a bit…."

"Of course I'm not. I like girls."

Mandy gave him a look.

"I'm just too old to remember who it works. I don't have time for that. And first off it would be wrong. "

Mac walked over to the Doctor. "How are you feeling?"

"Alright. New body takes a bit getting used to. It's like learnin to walk for the first time."

* * *

Harper was on break. To get to know the Doctor better he decided to invite him to lunch.

They sat next to the window. The Doctor took his straw out of his fizzy drink and sucked on the end of it.

The captain looked at the alien, who he didn't believe was really an alien. All the aliens he's seen were not human looking.

He had met the Doctor once, when he was a child. The doctor didn't remember him. He probably hasn't met him yet.

"So have you ever done…?" Harper started to ask. He couldn't think of how to finish the sentence.

"Have I ever done what?"

"The bloke thing." It was Harper's way of asking him if he was interested in girls. He kept it lamp shaded because it really wasn't a thing a bloke asked a bloke.

"What's that supposed to mean?" The Doctor was clueless. Harper thought it as a good opportunity to forget the matter.

"Nothing, Doctor. It's none of my business." Harper refrained from the subject. It was becoming too awkward.

Claudia comes up to them, balancing three Styrofoam coffee cups. "Coffee as promised." She sets one of the cups in front of Harper. "Even got one for you, Doctor." She hands the other cup to the Doctor. "Got to be back on my way though lads. Got to back on my way. Lester's saying something about a stack of purchase orders gone wrong. Confidentially, I think he's gone wrong."

"See you later, then." Harper raises his cup to her. "Damn, that woman." He starts at her while she walks away. He turns back to the Doctor. "Anyway, what were we talking about?"

"Nothing. What was that about?"

"We made a bet and I won. "

Mac decided to send Claudia and the Doctor out on the field. There was no sense in sending the lot back there to the zoo. He felt that they both had chemistry and Claudia could be a potential companion.

* * *

" Alaric Thompson." Claudia told the Doctor who the person who died was for the third time. "He was one of the zoo keepers. They found him dead in one of the empty animal exhibits."

Jacob Goodwin continued with his work at the zoo despite what happened earlier that day. He had heard about the strange events about some of the animals disappearing. The government officials had come to investigate the disappearances.

When he had come into work he had found one of his workers, Alaric Thompson dead.

"We're government officials." She shows her ID. "I'm Claudia Brown."

"And I'm the Doctor." The young man spoke with a Yorkshire accent.

"A Doctor of what exactly?" Goodwin asked. He wasn't quite convinced.

"A bit of everythin." When the man said "everythin, it sounded like everyfin' to him.

"How many people have been in this exhibit since Alaric Thompson?" Claudia asked the zoo manager, Jacob Goodwin.

"Just myself and Zoe. " Said Goodwin. "Why do you ask?" These people didn't sound like just plain government officials. They sounded like they knew more. The young man following close behind them looked too young.

"Oh just out of idle curiosity." The woman answered.

"Who's Zoe?" The Doctor asked.

"The zoologist you were talking to earlier." Claudia reminded him.

When they entered the exhibit the Doctor immediately started to scan the ground with his sonic screwdriver.

"What is that?" Goodwin asked.

"Oh, this. Top secret. Brand new, all very hush, hush. Where was the body found?" The Doctor walked past Goodwin like he owned the place.

"Over there." Goodwin said. "On the third stone." There were big flat rocks against the wall of the lion's exhibit. "I saw some blood. He must've slipped and hit his head."

"Do you think?"

Goodwin had by now the reason for the young man's strange behavior and questions. Something was unsettling about this man. He was surprised how intelligent this young man was. On top of working for the government and being a doctor, of everything he wondered how he could have possibly had found the time. This Doctor had to be carefully watched.

* * *

Detective Inspector Westburn arrived at the crime scene. He wasn't too pleased to see two government officials there.

"You people are not official part of law enforcement. Why would the government want to be involved with an accidental murder?"

The young black haired man answered, "I believe Mr. Thompson was murdered. Or at least he didn't die in the lion's exhibit."

"Is that so?"

The older woman stepped in front of the young man. "Please excuse my colleague. He's new."

"Eh, I might be new but I know what I'm doing." The young man said in defense, stepping beside her. He didn't take his eyes off her while he gave her a defensive look. Then he looked back at the D.I.

"Did you know Mr. Thompson?"

"No. Never met him. "

"What makes you think he was murdered?"

"There were scuff marks on the floor indicating that something was being dragged. If you examine the body I think you'll find that the back of his trainers are grazed from being dragged. Take a look at his head too; it's unlikely he died as a result of a fall.

"The door was bolted from the inside Mr.….."'

"Doctor."

"Doctor what?"

"Just call me Doctor."

"Doctor. Mr. Thompson was found alone. No one could have gotten out if they bolted the cage from the inside."

"Then whoever put him there was clever, could've escaped through a hole in the fence or a time fisher."

"That last bit is nonsense."

"If you're me, nonsense makes perfect sense."

"If I hadn't known any better I would say you sound insane but not the dangerous kind?" "What if I was?"

"Then I'd have to lock you up."

"Good luck trying."

The D.I. didn't know if the Doctor was joking. The tone was flat, displaying no emotion. He decided he must be joking.

Claudia stepped in at the Doctor's side. She had sense that not everything was ok, with him. "Are you ok?" She never heard of the Doctor giving off so much anger real early in any regeneration. The D.I. might not of noticed it but Claudia did. It was there just beneath the surface.

He was definitely not okay. But of course, The Doctor was far too stubborn to tell someone who was almost a complete stranger that he was not okay. Nothing would be the same for him anymore, not because he changed, but because of Amy and Rory's fate. He didn't like this new him one bit. He wished he hadn't escape Trenzalore. That HE accepted his death. But the damage was already done. If an event causing forced regeneration was so traumatic, psychical and psychological the effects would carry on into the next. The same thing had happened back in his sixth incarnation. When his fifth saved Peri from Spetrocx toxemia they were both poisoned with. There was only little antidote left and he used it for Peri. The Spetrocx still remained behind causing some trauma to his brain. His sixth was a bit unstable throughout that life due to the after effects. It had made him prone to violence. In the beginning of that life he had tried to strangle Peri. Now with his twelfth he feared it would be much worse, with weight of the deaths on his shoulders, his "new" family he had found taken from him too quickly. He was 1,423 years old now and his time lord instincts were trying to find a foot hold. The older time lords got the more madder they grew with power. That was the reason he had killed them two lifetimes ago. All that didn't help with his current condition.

Harper entered the Hub. It was empty, expect for Jess and the Doctor.

"Doctor." Harper storms over to him and takes the pizza box (which still has a full pizza.) and throws it away. "Get out."

"Hey, I was going to eat that."

"I have important things to discuss with Miss Cole."

"You don't have to force him out of here like that." She caught the look on the Captain's face. "Oh." She said as she realized. "Doctor, could you please leave for a few minutes?"

" oh, alright I'll …shove off then." He'd really rather stay and have a sneaky peek.

" Is someone finally getting over their little fancy over the Doctor." Harper stepped closer to her, face to face as if they were about to kiss. He put his hands around her waist.

"Yes, I have Captain." Jess said flirting.

"We've seen each other for a few years now…"

"I don't know if I'm ready to meet them."

"Don't worry my parents will love you."

The Doctor comes walking back in. "I forgot my…." He sees them in an embrace. They quickly pull away. "Well, this is awkward."

* * *

He went back to the TARDIS. He pressed random buttons, seeing if he could get a fix onto the fisher. He didn't notice the lion behind him. It let out a low rumbling growl.

"Ah, that's where you went." Communication with the creature telepathicaly he calmed it down.

He was interrupted by a knock on the TARDIS door. "Hold on a sec, got a problem." Closing the door, he nipped back to the zoo.

* * *

Later, he explained to Mandy that the TARDIS shield was down and the fisher at the zoo ended up in his TARDIS. The lion went through it and ended up in the TARDIS.

Mandy nodded. "And how was it that the TARDIS shielding was down?" She knew he was responsible somehow.

He wasn't going to say that he accidentally switched it off. "It wasn't like I was going to keep it. I'd rather keep a horse." He paused before adding, "Named Susan."

"That doesn't explain the dead guy."

"No, it's something far more sinister than that." The Doctor got serious. You knew when his pitch in voice changed.

His Yorkshire accent took on a more deeper tone. When he was trying to get what he wanted or put on the qurckiness to hide his true feelings, it was a higher excited tone. It literally sounded like he was two different people. One the selfish, careless, reckless person and the other caring, considerate, hyper, a bit on the mad side but mad in a good way.

"And his name was Alaric." The Doctor said in a serious tone.

"Ok, sorry." She looked down at his desk. "I thought that's what you were still calling him."

"I'd like to still go back and check. Something or someone dragged Alaric into that exhibit."

"You put the Lion back in it's cage right?"

"Don't worry about Susan. I'll tell him not to bite."

She put on her jacket she had been about to take off and she followed him out. "You named it Susan?"

* * *

The Medical examiner was looking over the body of Mr. Thompson. "More than a knock to the head." He told D.I. Westburn. Westburn's superior was in the room as well.

"It was murder then." Westburn said.

"I'm afraid so." The examiner answered.

"That's what the Doctor described." Westburn looked at the body of the dead man, grimly.

"Which Doctor would that be?" Westburn's superior, Chief Strikham asked.

"He works with UNIT, a government agency. I swear they're getting younger. But this one was different. It seemed like he knew something more."

"The way you described this Doctor to me, keep him with you. He might prove useful and at least you'll always know where he is and what he's doing."

"Something about him doesn't set quite right with me." He could call it his cop instinct. It was the way the Doctor walked and spoke, like he had some knowledge that others didn't, that he was much older. The young man couldn't have been a day over thirty. "But I doubt he had nothing to do with this act."

"He's one of the few people we can be sure didn't kill Thompson. He had no connection to him." The chief pointed out. There was still one thing that mattered. "But if it weren't for him we wouldn't even know that this was murder." He sighed. "As much as I hate to do it, I think we should try finding a way to implicate Jacob Goodwin. It would kill two birds with one stone." As the earth people say.

Westburn stretched his arms over his head. "I agree." He said. "But I think one killing is already more than enough."

* * *

The Doctor told Mandy to meet him back at the zoo. She didn't see why he wouldn't just let her in the TARDIS. Anyway, they met up and examined the lion exhibit.

The Doctor had used some time lord mind meld on the lion. It watched both of them calmly. It looked relaxed.

"Just great." Westburn muttered as he got out of his car, seeing the Doctor. This time he was with much younger woman. "What are you two doing here?" He went into the exhibit and started his way toward them. There was a low rumbling growl from behind him.

"No, sit, stay Susan. No you can't eat him." The Doctor spoke.

Westburn looked behind him. The lion lay down, putting it's head on it's paws, letting out a disappointed huff. Looking back at the Doctor

"This is private property you know." Westburn said. "Even if you are government officials you

The Doctor lifted up a wallet with a slip of paper in it. "Permission already granted." He said. Briefly flashing it, he put it back in his pocket. He continued to scan the ground by the fence with what appeared to be a wide metal tube like pen. It glowed green at the tip and make a whirring noise. "Should be any second now." He addressed to the blonde girl.

"We'll help." Mandy said.

"We? There is no we." Said the Doctor, rejecting her help.

"He already seen..."

"It's just I like to do my own, thank you. I don't want any arguments." His Yorkshire sounding accent was more noticeable when he was annoyed or when he went into quirky madness mode, as Mandy put it.

"What if I lwant to help, weather you like it or not?" She was challenging him. The Doctor always acquired assistance. Why wouldn't he let her go? "And if you don't want any arguments you'll let me go because I'm not staying here."

The Doctor stared at the human, tilting his head to one side. Odd things, humans but he had a purpose to protect them. But they sometimes got in the way, making him too emotional. That got in the way too. He couldn't just be centered on one human alone. He looked upon humans as a whole because of his inexperiance with them. He had spent two hundred years away from them in his last life. To him they were something new. He couldn't look over one of them. It took up too much of his time concerning over one human life. The girl standing in front of him was more than just a girl. She was human. He puzzled on rather to let her come or not. He supposed he could use the company. "Fine, but if you get into trouble it'll be your own fault. I'm not getting you out of it."

"Very well then." She said. If she went with what about the Detective?"

The Doctor had the D.I. keep a look out.

**An: A quick break, some of the story is slightly based on the DW novel, Apollo 23. I own nothing. This is how it should have gone anyway. But with the 12th Doctor, and my character Mandy Clearwater. **

* * *

They adventured onto a moon base. Their quantum displacement link was broken, sabotage caused it to break down, causing Alaric to appear on the base. The moon base had been take over the moon base and tried to wipe human minds and replace it with theirs, a Talerian mind. They tried it on Alaric first but it had failed so they had disposed his body.

The alien leader, Jackson, who had kept his back-up with him. Restoring everyone's minds through their back-ups also erases the alien minds possessing them. Jackson manages to call an invasion force of real Talerians and reveals that the real Jackson's experiments had allowed him (the alien possessing him) to transfer himself to Jackson in the first place and start the invasion of Earth. Talerian bodies were weak and they needed a new host.

Captain Reeves sacrifices himself to destroy the Talerians by shooting out a window, causing a depressurization that kills the Talerian invaders due to their fragility, and kills himself.

When the Doctor and Mandy returned, Westburn, of course chalked Alaric's death as accidental. The Doctor wanted to keep it that way. "You keep telling yourselves that we, aliens don't exist. And I'd like it to keep it that way." Was his exact words.

Back at UNIT the Doctor, Mandy and Harper were in the Canteen.

"You don't look like an alien." Harper said. "Is that what you really look like or do you just appear human to us? I know you can regenerate but is it always human form or can you be something else?"

"I can be anything. I just always choose this form which you're accustom to. Why do you think the TARDIS blends in with it's surroundings? Oh, I know those looks, dun look at me like tha. The camelion circuit broke. I like her as a phone box anyway...so you're simple human minds can wrap your head around it."

"Yeah because our simple human minds can wrap our heads round, bigger on the inside." Harper said sarcastically.

Lester handed out the paychecks.

"Were's the Doctor's pay?" Mandy asked.

"No, Mandy, it's ok." The Doctor said. He had no use for money.

"No it's not." She turned to Lester. "He works just as hard as the rest of us, maybe even harder." He deserves it. "Is it because he isn't one of us?"

"It's alright. I don't even have a bank account." The Doctor told her.

Lester sighed and took out a couple hundred quid from his pocket.

"It's still not right." Mandy muttered to the Doctor. They started walking to his lab.

"I don't need money."

"Just because you say so doesn't mean they shouldn't pay you."

"Really?"

"You count as one of us."

The Doctor didn't pause to think on her statement. But he thought himself worse or more worse than a human being. He tried to think "What would I do with money?"

"What else are you going to buy pizza with or new scarfs...and..."

"Hats." He added. "I love hats. Don't forget hats. And I could do with a few quid for pizza." He looked over at her with a puzzled look, as if trying to figure her out. "You didn't have to do that. But look at you protecting the rights of the time lords."

"Yep." She said smugly.

"Well, this one anyway."

She turned her head giving him a quick glance. "Why shouldn't I have done it? You're my best friend."

"Best friend?" He said with an amused tone. He thought she couldn't stand him, hated him even because he tried to push her away. Instead of trying to understand her he excepted her revised feelings for him. He didn't know if she was his best friend yet. The hole the Ponds left, in his hearts, there was still an empty void.

He had retired briefly in his Eleventh life. Believing he had to stop or that would be the end of him. Then came Clara, bright shining, intelligent Clara. She made him see that he couldn't give up. Amy wouldn't have approved of him, stopping, refusing to save people, when there was children crying. She would have been disappointed. If he ever stopped again surely that would be the end of him. Now he believed in having them around to keep himself in check and use them to his advantage. But he'd do anything to protect the human race. Even if it meant killing a whole entire species if he had the chance.

Would Amy be disappointed in him now?

"I had a lot of friends." He told here excitedly, masking his feeling of loss, trying to block his memories of them. It worked somewhat. "Best friends even." He found himself being flattered by this exchange. "But not as me." He saw she was smiling. It warmed his hearts. He could do with a smile like that now and then, a real genuine smile. Not the one he put up as a façade. He changed the subject, starting with how she viewed him. "There's something I wanted to ask you."

"Ok, go ahead."

"How do I look?" His appearance had improved, though at times he thought he was ridiculously good looking. No other of his incarnation had been this good, attractive. There were no outter flaws, just the teeth.

"I dunno." Mandy didn't know how to answer that. "Average?"

"Average?" He sounded offended.

"Fine, hot. You're hot. Devastatingly handsome, in a...nerdy sort of way." She was sort of sarcastic on the last sentence. She was a bit annoyed as well. He was sort of the egotistical type, but beneath that she sensed a loving caring person.

He walked up to her until they were face to face. He suddenly took her head in his hands and kissed her full on the mouth. He then pulled away from her quickly.

"What was that?" She started at him. Her eyes bright and sparkling at this new behavior. The Doctor didn't go around kissing his companions. Even if he didn't count her as one, she counted herself as one.

"How was it?"

"I couldn't tell. Why'd you do that?"

"I was a little out of practice." He said a little mischievously, like he was trying to impress her.

"But did you have to use tongue?"She wiped her mouth on her sleeve with a disgust look.

"Hold on I was just flirting wasn't I? Is that what sort of person I am now? I've never been flirty before. I think I like being flirty."

She rolled her eyes as she walked out of his office. "Be flirty with me like that again and you'll see the back side of my hand."

He followed her out. "Just so you know that didn't mean anything."

"I know."

"You know?"

She stopped in the middle of the hall. " It'd be too weird."

"Weird right. I can't do that sort of thing anyway." He put his hands in his pockets. "Good?" He said as if asking if they were clear.

"We're good." Mandy said.

* * *

AN: I had to put the Susan thing in here. While I was writing it I was thinking about "A Town Called Mercy" where the Doctor named the horse Susan, then I started thinking about horses and figured why not put a "Girl in the Fireplace." reference in there as well. Hoped you enjoyed it.


	5. A Grave and Present Danger

"So what's the deal here?" Claudia Brown asked. She, Mandy Clearwater and the Doctor had been called out to investigate a supposed haunted church. Every night screams were hear coming from inside. "I mean how can a church be haunted?"

"Well it is next to a graveyard." Mandy nodded to the fenced in side of the church.

Claudia was skeptical. She might not be as young as Mandy, though forty-four years old wasn't old, she wasn't daft. She couldn't rap her head around the supernatural element. She believed in science. There were no room for such magical creatures. There were monsters out there but they came from other worlds. Humans came up with supernatural explanations to the unexplained because their minds can't cope. "Ghosts don't exist do they Doctor?"

"Anything's possible." The Doctor was more open minded these days. He wouldn't rule out ghosts right away. He could be wrong but he wouldn't admit it. And he didn't always know everything, that he wouldn't admit either.

"We better check it out." Claudia said reluctantly. They walked toward the old church. Claudia tried the front door while the Doctor tried round back.

The front door was locked. Perhaps some kids got trapped inside. Just then the front double doors opened, nearly Claudia half to death. It made her jump. But she relaxed once she realized who it was. "Doctor!"

"The window was open." He said, peering outside the door. A smile spread on his face. The two woman followed him inside. As the ventured further into the abandoned church the Doctor said, "You'd think nothin would surprise me anymore. Ghosts!" Claudia shot him a look that read, get real. "Possibly Ghosts." Ok. Human minds refused to be open minded sometimes. He used to be closed minded. It didn't help to as what was out there. He thought there wasn't anymore to the universe for him to understand. He had been so wrong. Now he wouldn't say that out loud. The Universe was far bigger than even he expected.

"So how do we hunt a ghost?" Mandy said, sweeping her torch across the room.

The Doctor stopped walking, almost making Mandy walk into him. He turned around on his heels. "Here's the thing." He said in a cheerful tone and then it went serious. "We don't. Go back to the..." He remembered the TARDIS was back at UNIT. Why'd he agree too this? He liked working for UNIT again, no doubt. But as soon as this time fisher business was fixed he was leaving.

"Back to the what?" Mandy asked him. Back to the car? Why'd he only say that to her?

"Never mind." The Doctor said shaking his head. "Force of...habit."

"We're only trying to help you Doctor." Claudia stated. "If you like it or not."

"Not you too. That is the last thing I want." His tone was a more mumbled complaint.

Claudia found herself smiling as the Doctor flustered with confusion. He was always like this. He liked to take matters into his own hands. No matter how many times he changed. Sometimes he needed to be told otherwise. He needed them and he knew it. He was just too stubborn to admit it. She only just met him but she felt she had known him for years. But she couldn't have. She dismissed the thought as they walked into the sanctuary.

"It's lovely." Mandy said, taking in the elegant design of the room and the stain glass windows. "Just needs a little cleaning up."

"And it stinks." The Doctor added.

"I don't smell anything." Mandy sniffed the air. Still nothing.

"Could be the plumbing." Claudia smelled it too.

The Doctor knew that it wasn't the plumbing. This church had been abandoned for at least over a hundred years. It wouldn't have had plumbing. Though the room looked like it was in the process of being remodeled. They could have fitted it with plumbing. But he doubted it. The remodeling project had stopped some time ago. He presumed from budget problems. No one else could have smelled what he did, unless they were time sensitive.

Claudia noticed a set of stairs set off from the stage. "I'll go take a quick look up the stairs."

"My mum used to take me to church on Sundays." Mandy was still taking in the massive room. "When I was a little girl." She turned to the Doctor. He was standing behind her, leaning on one of the pews. He had a frown on his face. She wondered if it was a sad frown or if he was just thinking.

He suddenly straightened "I hate Sundays, the planet, mind you, not the day. Welcome to planet Sunday were it's Sunday all the time. Wait, actually I think I do hate sundaes, as in ice cream. Sundaes on planet Sunday. I've had too many of those." He stopped himself short. He was rambling. That was one other thing that didn't change. He would focus his mind on one thing, speak a bunch of nonsense so it would take his mind off things. He thought if he didn't ramble aimlessly he would think of the past. It was also a part of who he was. When he'd have a thought he'd say it without thinking,

Mandy wanted to smack him one. She wondered if he was always like this. But what if he was sad and was just thinking of something random to say to cover up how he felt? She didn't want to upset him. She just wanted to stick to the job without any interruptions. That proved to be impossible with the Doctor around. "I'd take forever to scope out this whole place." She thought about calling it a day. "Think we should leave?"

"One more detour, should cover it. But stick to the main floors." He wanted to be able to keep an eye on her.

Claudia scanned the upstairs loft space with her EMF. There was a hall way leading to separate room. One of them appeared to be a small flat. She entered one of the other rooms, which had been an office at one point. There had to be an explanation for the screams people heard at night. Perhaps a time fisher had opened and the screams were being carried from the other side. She couldn't wait to tell the Doctor what she had found. She felt like a school girl showing off her to school teacher. But she was older, well appeared older than the Doctor. Sometimes when she looked at him it was as if she was seeing someone she hadn't seen in a long time. Someone she... lost. That wasn't right. It couldn't be. She never met him before. Though at times he made her feel strange. When he was around she could hear faint whispers as if something was trying to communicate with her. It was like white noise coming through a radio but you could still hear the faint music. Then she would close her eyes and open them and everything would be back to normal. They were like contractions. The farther away from him she was, they didn't happen as frequently. Sometimes she heard nothing. The noise slowly faded from her mind.

As she left the room a fisher had opened.

"Where'd you go off to?" The Doctor asked her as Claudia made her way down the stairs.

"There was this sort of flat upstairs. If I'm right...I got a theory."

"I'm defiantly out of here if you start quoting Buffy." Mandy said.

"Sarah Michelle Gellar" The Doctor said, a hint of lust in his voice. "She had some legs on her. And Tegan. Ooh Tegan."

Mandy looked at him wide eyed. It striked her as odd that the Doctor would be so asexual. He was an old man that flirted with anything that had legs.(as in, not legs. erm. erm.) and they had to be young and beautiful of course. In a way he was like all men. But she was sure he wasn't after only one thing. 1. Because he was an alien and 2. He was old. He didn't look old. Did he always have a young body while his eyes were so ancient? She tried keeping that in mind to prevent herself from falling for him. The problem was that he looked young and he was gorgeous, tall, a little scruffy. In short he was hot, dark, and mysterious. He was

a shameless flirt. He knew it. Mandy knew it. Even everyone at UNIT probably knew it. Thing was, it never went past flirting. Scratch that. He'd probably kiss girls and guys alike if it meant getting his way. She need to look for something that made him alien.

There was a sudden inhuman sounding screech. Claudia and the Doctor briefly exchanged a look.

"It came from upstairs." Claudia was the first to speak. She and the Doctor raced toward the upper landing.

"Are you two mad?" Mandy hesitated before going after them. "Don't go after it."

They all entered the room Claudia was in earlier. Her EMF was going off in her back pocket. A human figure was standing in the middle of the room, a time fisher had opened behind it. The figure wasn't solid but you could tell it was that of a woman wearing Victorian clothing, it was a ghost like apparition.

"Hello." The Doctor stepped forward the figure.

"Doctor, don't go near it." Claudia warned.

The Ghost Woman suddenly screamed and rushed forward, her arms out as if she was about to strangle the Doctor. But before she could reach him she disappeared into thin air.

"Was that a ghost?" Mandy the Doctor she was just being a naive human. But he couldn't help but to acknowledge her thought, though he kept it to himself. There was no time to express it.

"As I said, no such thing." Claudia interrupted.

"Some sort of projection, from a ship maybe." The Doctor said. He cleared his throat. He didn't tell them what really brought them here.

Mandy didn't believe what he was saying. "But you saw her. She was wearing Victorian clothing. You could see right through her."

"She was a data ghost. She was ghosting. She's gone now, only had seconds." Was it her or did she detect no emotion in his voice. That woman was dead.

She didn't quite get the Doctor's explanation. "So it was a ghost?"

"No. A data ghost is a person's consciousness that is preserved in a piece of technology, if the person wearing the technology dies. It replay the consciousness until it dies." He was thinking of Astrid, and that girl from the Library (He couldn't remember her name.) It didn't pain him though like it used to. It was a dull pain, just like when he thought of all the others, except for River. The wound was still fresh.

"Technology can be cruel." Mandy said.

"I bet on the other side is the future." The Doctor knew it was the future. He just wanted to get her excited. He was excited when they were, when they were seeing it. Their experience was never the same as his. Seeing it through their eyes always took on a new perspective.

"You said on the other side there was a space ship." Said Claudia. He was always one step ahead. And he obviously knew that he knew something they didn't and had been keeping it from him.

The Doctor held up his wallet with psychic paper. "Got a message on this, shortly before we arrived. Someone's crying for help. Somewhere out there is a space ship with people trapped."

"The futures on the other side of there?" She was enthused. Last time she went through a time fisher it brought them to a moon base, present day. A whole new world waited on the other side of this one. "We can go through to a different time as well?" It really was amazing and at the same time it frightened her.

"It's too dangerous." Claudia warned. If she was thinking of jumping into things with the Doctor...she didn't know what she was getting into. The Doctor could handle it. "Why didn't you just take your ship?" She asked the Doctor.

"What's the point in that if you can't face the danger?" A manic grin spread across the Doctor's face. It was the first time she'd seen him smile. He had a dimple in his right cheek when he smiled. Claudia decided he was sort of goofy but to a younger woman he'd look ridiculously handsome.

"It's safer." Claudia stated.

"They need our help now." The Doctor said.

Claudia gave in. That was a good point. The Doctor couldn't just avoid helping people. She set her watch. "OK I'm setting my watch for eight hours. That's all I'm giving you."

"You're not comin?" The Doctor asked. He sort of wanted her to come rather than the blond girl.

"Someone has to wait till you get back."

He loved her answer. It was good enough for him. Let's see if the other one can show her worth. The Doctor was thinking. I will need someone to assist me.

"I'm not going either." The blonde haired girl said.

"Oh yes you are." The Doctor said. "You wanted to help. And I need a lovely assistant to...assist me."

She tried to protest but he already grabbed her hand. And before she knew it they were on the other side.

They were on a lower level of the space ship Mandy guessed. One major hint was it had no heating. She wasn't dressed for cool weather, with her short sleeve shirt and very short skirt.

"Before you ask we're on the engine deck, right below the engine." The Doctor said. There was a hint of a braggart tone in his voice. He was showing off.

Mandy chose to ignore it. You wouldn't want to correct a person who thought they knew everything. Heaven forbid. She couldn't imagine how it would go with the Doctor. The cool air made her ignore his behavior all the more. She crossed her arms and rubbed them. "It's freezing down here."

"You should have dressed warmer." The Doctor was examining her articals of clothing, by looking her over.

She stopped him before his eyes could wonder to where they shouldn't. "Well I hardly knew it was going to cold did I." She smacked his hand away when

They continued down the dimly lit corridors.

The Doctor spoke, not even after a second or two. "If you get scared you can hold me hand if you like." He knew how humans could get scared, their minds working into over drive when suddenly forced into something the didn't understand.

She misunderstood him. Thinking that because she was female that he thought she would easily get scared and couldn't handle herself. She scowled at him. "You forced me to come with you." Said Mandy bluntly.

"You wanted to help." He pointed out to her again.

"That was before it got all bonkers." She kept her arms crossed. "And how exactly am I helping? You just keep annoying me."

"You're helping me by keeping me company." The Doctor said simply. He needed someone by his side. That's strictly what he brought her for. He'd do all the work. "If you want me to be less annoying just keep put of my way."

"First you want my help, then you do want it. Which one is it?" Mandy said. He was complicated, couldn't seem to make up his mind.

"I want you for company in case anything goes wrong." The Doctor pointed out honestly.

"Am I your lap dog?" That was what she was starting to feel like. She wasn't anyone's pet, used for just tagging along.

Instead of answering her, he patted her on the head. She moved away from him. He had a wide grin on his face. Her mouth fell open, shocked, as if to say, "Oh my God. I am."

He put up a finger and pressed it to her lips. "Do you hear that?" He asked her.

A robot dressed as a butler wheeled it's was down the corridor. "Welcome to Space Station Nine." It said in it's mechanical voice. "How can I be of assistance?"

Assistance. That reminded the Doctor. "Yes. My..." He glanced at her, unsure what to call her. "Ok, this is a difficult one." Ok, let me think. Assistance goes with... "Assistant." He finally added. "Get this, got herself lost. I say the main floor is that way," He points ahead of him. "And she thinks it's that way." He pointed over his shoulder.

The robot was silent for a few seconds. Then it backed up. "Follow." It swiveled around heading back the way it came. They way the Doctor said, "Was the way to the main floor."

The Doctor stared after it. Mandy grabbed him by the wrist. "Do you think we can trust it?" Mandy asked him. "I can't even rely on my own car. Un trustworthy piece of tin."

"Eh, that's racist. He's a butler robot. No need to discriminate."

"No, not him. my car."

"Oh." He started walking.

"Can we trust it though? I kept getting this eerie feeling. Like it was starting right through me."

"It's a robot, What harm can it do?" He went in front of her. His expression became serious. No you couldn't trust robots at all. He wanted to see how this human would react to his judgment and to see and she passed. One test down. Maybe he was wrong about this one. Nah, he was never wrong. Maybe misjudged but never wrong. He was starting to like her already. But he couldn't let her get close. That was the next test. That was one of his rules. He'd have them around to help him. He wasn't looking for a friendship. He didn't do that anymore.

I don't need a friend but I need someone? Huh, never thought that before. That was new too.

"Couldn't you have said we were lost?" Mandy asked him. He didn't have to embarrass her.

"Why would I say tha? Make me-self look like an idiot?"

Did he just call her an idiot? She thinks he called her an idiot. Who does he think he is? He might be an alien but she knew an ignorant bloke when she saw one. But he wasn't like this before. Or was he just showing this side to him or had she just not seen it?

The robot led them to the top floor. The space ship was indeed futuristic and unnaturally clean. The deck was lined with shops and restaurants. She could smell the aroma of freshly deep fried chips.

"I can't believe this." Mandy She put her hand on the Doctor's arm. "They still have chip shops...and proper shops. And we're in space!"

"Aren't you forgetting?"

"Forgetting what?" She took in all the sounds and smells, the people bustling about enjoying their trip. Nothing out of the ordinary.

"Possible danger." He flashed the message he'd gotten on his psychic paper.

"Look around you Doctor, do you see any danger? Maybe it was a false alarm." She excitedly passed a few shops, stopping at one, to look at boxes of brightly colored scarfs and trinkets on display. " Have fun, explore. Isn't that what you always do. Come on, show some little enthusiasm." She put on a scarf, looked at herself in a mirror. "But first how about we get some chips. It could be our first proper date, I mean as far as moon landings go..."

"How about no." He wasn't looking at her when he said this.

"I was only kidding. I don't go for your type anyway." She took the scarf off and put it back. What she meant was she didn't go for the science, show off types. She smiled at him, a flash of flawless, genuine happiness.

His attention went back to the people. Something wasn't right here. They were all fine. Not in any apparent danger. As he watched them he instantly knew something was wrong. He could hear their voices. He couldn't make out exactly what they were saying and he couldn't communicate with them. There was only one way he was able to hear them. This ship was using a psychic link. It boosted his psychic ability, which he hadn't had to use for decades. It was causing him some disorientation. His head hadn't been this noisy since...

"I told you that before. " She added but she wasn't paying attention. Sighing she walked over to him. She saw that he had his hand on his head, looking a bit disoriented. "Doctor?"

"Just a head ache." He lied. He didn't want her to be concerned but she already was.

She knew it was something more. "Maybe you should go...sit down?" She tried to locate a place to sit but there weren't any. "You're not getting space sick are you?" Mandy teased.

Her voice sounded distant to him. "No. I'm fine. Really." Out of the corner his eye he noticed the passengers were repeating the same action over and over. They were repeating the last few moments of their lives.

They explored the ship a little further, stopping once they came to a room that looked to be a nursery.

"How can they have nineteen children, when they're young?" Mandy asked. She had just talked with a woman who appeared to be about her age. All the young woman had at least thirteen to nineteen children.

"They're using a progenation machine." The Doctor pointed out the machine at the back of the room. "Not usin tha' on me. Dun won' to go through that again."

"We use the progenation machine re-populate." Said a voice from behind them. The Doctor and Mandy turned to see a young brunette woman in her twenties. "No space traveler has ever came here."

"What?" The Doctor said. She wouldn't know that unless she had been overhearing their entire conversation.

"You are the first." The woman said.

"What does she mean?" Mandy whispered to the Doctor. "You are the first?"

"Our planet burned up centuries ago." The woman spoke again. "Our forefathers built this ship. The ones that saw sun light."

"What planet would that be then?"

"That would be Earth." The Doctor answered quickly. "You grew up on this space station?" He directed to the woman.

"I don't believe we introduced each other. I'm Elsa."

"Mandy. He's the Doctor."

"How long have you been floating in space?" The Doctor was in no need for introductions. He had no time. He had to find out what was happening with this ship as soon as possible.

"For centuries." Elsa said.

"Not generations?" He had to be sure. The humans of Messaline were at war with the Half. Their war had been going for generations, which actually turned out to be only weeks.

Elsa stared at him blankly. She wasn't really staring at him. Mandy realized she seemed to be staring at nothing. Mandy waved her had in front of Elsa's face. She didn't even blink. "It's like...she just stopped. Is she a robot?"

The Doctor stepped forward to get a closer look.

Elsa suddenly came out of her trance. "I'm sorry. Did you say something?" She asked. "Pardon me." She walked past them and over to the window.

"Wait." The Doctor called out and went up to her. Elsa stopped and turned to face him.

The Doctor's got this covered. Mandy thought. Time to have some fun on my own. She snuck out of the room to do some exploring.

The Doctor was about to put his hands on her shoulders but he stopped himself. He didn't know what it would do if he touched her. It would probably destroy her consciousness. He had to find out what happened to the passengers on this ship and why it wasn't crashing like was supposed to, according to the psychic paper. Speaking of psychic, his head was still ringing from the ships psychic field. "You've been roaming around space for centuries. Why haven't you reached civilization yet?"

"This is our civilization." Her tone in voice sounded automatic. The Doctor was took deep in thought to even notice. "You should be far more along than this." The Doctor said. Colonizing any habitable planet they could reach.

" We like it here. It is safe for our children. We were told."

"Told by who?" Some malevolent alien force?

"This ship us best efficient and provides for our children."

"Not powered by a star whale is it?"

"You ask such strange questions, sir." She moved a strand of her hair behind her ear. She would have been blushing if she had been alive. "But I am most flattered by your intelligence."

The Doctor smiled sheepishly but he was really rather grateful. "Well...thank you. I am the best."

"You would get along with the professor."

"Probably...like that. But I got to get..." He turned around to where Mandy was. She wasn't there. He turned back to Elsa. She was gone too, as was everyone else in the room. He turned back to where Mandy had been standing. "Why do they always do that?" He left the room.

The professor was checking all the monitor screens. Two strangers had arrived. That was impossible. They were in flight. Perhaps there was something he missed. They couldn't be stowaways unless they had some transport of their own. He'd keep an eye on them. In order to do that he had to have complete control over the data ghosts, which he already did. All he had to do was get Elsa to say the right things.

The Doctor had came to a door with a plaque with golden letters. It read, Professor Jesop and below that, office printed in black lettering on the glass. He reached out to grab the door know when he heard a voice call out, "Oi, stop right there Mr."

"Uh oh here comes trouble." He teased to hide his frustration at her. He almost was this close into investigating and she had to interrupt.

"You can talk." Mandy came down the hall toward him.

The Doctor went up to her and hugged her. She hugged him back but suddenly pushed him away. "Oh no you don't. No way. I know what you're trying to do. You're not getting away with it."

"With what? What'd I do?"

"You were swandering off without me."

"No I wasn't. You were the one that was swanderin'.

"Weren't you at least bit concerned about me?"

"I just...got caught up with things."

"Uh-huh. You were planning to go off on one of your adventures without me." She said with a smile. Then her face turned serious, imitating the Doctor. "Again."

"You have to bring this up now?"

"You left me on a base on the dark side of the moon where it was attack of the blob monsters, who placed their minds into the crew and placed their personalities in a vile of water. You don't know what it's like being a vile of water. And you made a clear water joke."

"Were you actually conscious for that bit?"

"I couldn't hear you."

"Alright. I want to go check out the engine room."

"We were already in the engine room." Why would he need to go back there for?

"That was below the engine room." The Doctor corrected her.

Professor Jesop continued watching on the screen. "Follow them." He said to the butler robot who was also watching on, behind his shoulder. "I want you to bring me this one." He pointed to the dark haired young man, who had been talking to one of the passengers. The young man perhaps caught on what was going on here. "He has intelligence." As, Elsa had said. "Vast beyond any human. He could be a problem."

"Do you wish me to exstingish the problem?" The robot asked.

"When and if I need you to. In the meantime bring him to me unharmed. The girl, is not of importance. We shall leave her for now." He took his eyes off the screen. "You may go Gaivolarn." He addressed to the robot.

The robots eyes glowed red as it left the room.

"I did come looking for you." The Doctor told Mandy. "I just didn't right away because I knew you'd be alright."

"But how?"

"Well look at you." He looked at her up and down.

"Look at me what?" She looked down at herself. Did she have something on her shirt? Then she noticed the way he was looking at her. It was the look primary school kids gave you, examine you up and down, it was their way of saying, 'I'm better than you.'

"You're human. Tough as old...resourceful." He punched her arm lightly. The gesture was awkward. He wasn't really good at socializing, with humans. They weren't on the same wave length. He spent so long away from humans. What did he say to someone who was, well he didn't know how she felt but it looked like she was getting angry. So he tried the best he could. "Come on, not don't be cross."

"I'm not." Mandy knew he was just trying to cheer her up. He left her behind two times already. Who was to say he wouldn't do it again. Ok so maybe the second time she ran off. She only did it to see if he would come after her. He didn't. Was that a good sign or a bad sign. By not coming did that mean he knew she could handle herself? The rest of their walk down to the lower levels of the space station was spent in silence. It was the worst five minutes she ever had.

A purple blue light was shining at the end of the hall.

"Energy converter of some sort." The Doctor said. He went over to the control panel.

"And you know that because..."

"The hair on the back of my neck stands up. And it sort of tickles." He began to fidget uncomfortably, like he was being tickled, when he touched the energy converter.

"Cut it out." She said in a whisper as she made her way over, climbing over cables and wires that were attacked to a cable box, connecting to the engine convert. To Mandy it just looked like once of those giant fancy gum ball machines. It was purple like one too.

"Seems to be made out of spare parts, junk by the looks of it."

So maybe it was one. Mandy thought. The Doctor was pulling out his sonic device. "What are you doing?" She asked. He went over to the cable box, opening it, he scanned it with his sonic.

"That's what I thought."

"What?"

"This ship's being powered by a living organism, or it was." He walked back to the converter and suddenly looked at Mandy darkly. "You humans never stop, do you."

"Don't look at me." Mandy said defensively. He sank to the ground and got to work on the converter at least that's what it looked like he was doing, or trying to do.

He tried to fight the voices that tried to assault his mind, by keeping busy. He unscrewed the panel off the converter and proceeded to pry off the back panel.

Mandy was still speaking. "You never judge a person by one race or a race by one person." She was unaware that he was unable to hear her.

"Why?"

"Why?" She repeated him, shocked he'd ask such a thing. "Because it's wrong."

She misunderstood him again. She hadn't seen his face because he was behind the energy converter and her back had been turned. So she didn't see him squint in pain as he asked the question. The question the voices kept asking. Once they were gone his head was clear and had no memory of even asking the question or her answer.

"So where were we?"

"I said it was wrong."

"What was? Oh yeah, forcing an alien life force to power your ship against it's will, not pretty. Not nice at all."

"That's not what I...Doctor are you sure you're all right?" She was asking because he seemed a bit out of it. He didn't even answer her. "Doctor."

"All right? Yeah. Just a bit busy. So if I don't answer you right away..."

"I was just saying...it's fine." His answer was also a bit delayed. She doubted it was him being busy. Something was affecting him. She didn't let it worry her too much.

He walked back to the cable box, like a drunkard. "They had it wired into the main from to power the ship. Much more worse than a space whale."

That was it she couldn't pretend anymore. "Something on this ship is affecting you." She took the screw driver from him. "Let me do it. Just tell me what to do." Her eyes pleaded with him.

"That chip, is a psychic link. It's boosts my telepathic ability. I don't use it much, so yeah it's going to have an affect on me. That's what I've been hearing." He'd been hearing the voices of the dead. That's were their consciousness was stored. Their solid appearing forms were just projections. They went back to the energy converter when not being observed.

"What are the side affects?" She observed him. He was covering his face with his hand, more in an effort to hide his pain from her. He would always try to hide his pain, all men did.

He rubbed his forehead and took his hand away from his face. "Just disorientation... acute mental Confusion. Shouldn't last long, once we get this all sorted."

"You'll be all right then?"

"Yeah. I will be, worst of it's past." He wasn't sure on it. "The further away from it we are the less it'll affect me."

"We got to get you out of here then." She put an arm around him. He seemed to stiffen in her grip as if he was afraid to be touched.

He grabbed her arms and moved away. "There's something I need to do first." He moved over to the converter. He wasn't showing that it was bothering him but she knew he must be in pain. "You see this ship has been powered ..."

"By a living organism." She finished. They really should get moving along. Did he ever stop to rest?

"But this ship is fitted up to it's teeth with upgraded technology, the finest in the galaxy. If anything were to happen to the passengers their consciousness would be saved to the data core. And they had a living thing hooked up to bunch of wires until one day it decided it had enough, found a way to break out and went on a rampage."

"Then what's powering the ship?" Mandy asked. The ship would have crashed if it wasn't powered by something.

"Haven't you been paying attention?"

"Oi, I'm new." She was new to this companion thing.

"Yeah? So am I. But I'm not...limited." He ignored her offended look. " If they found out they're dead this ship will continue to crash."

"Continue to crash?"

"It stopped moving after their power source broke out and killed them all. It needed a new power source."

"You mean...those people...their data ghosts or whatever..."

"Are powering the ship, yes. And the old power source is probably around here somewhere. Somewhere among our little ghost friends? No that'd be too obvious because I'd know." He closed his eyes to think for a minute. While he did so he put up some walls in his mind so that the voices wouldn't be able to get through. There was one person he hadn't thought of. "I'm going to have a talk to this professor Elsa mentioned."

"And what am I supposed to do?" She hoped he wasn't leaving her behind again, while he went on exploring. Wasn't the experience about experiencing it together? At least he would be a safe distance away from the converter.

"You're human." He said as he continued down the hall. "You'll think of something."

What was that supposed to mean? Mandy asked herself. She hoped that had been a compliment.

* * *

The Doctor's eyes snapped open, the sudden bright light blinding him. He realized he was lying on something. A bed.

"He's waking up." said a girl's voice. It was a child's.

His eyes adjusted rather quickly. There were six children, all girls, from five to eight around his bed.

"Now girls." said a man's voice. The girls giggled and ran past him, out of the room. "Forgive them. They're not used to new passengers. I'm Professor Jessop." He was curious about the passenger himself.

"I'm the Doctor." He was sitting up now.

"Of course. Elsa's told me all about you." The professor paused, correcting himself. "Well that we had a new traveler on board. Couldn't get her to stop talking about you."

"I guess you can say I make certain impression on people." The Doctor said. What he was oblivious to was that he could also make the wrong impression. Professor Jessop's saw him as a threat. But maybe he could use this Doctor's intelligence. He could use it to get home faster. These simple primitive mines were not working fast enough. When he got home he would rain terror on the human race.

"Yes." The professor said, clearing his throat. "You give me the impression you're not human."

"What gave you that impression?" The Doctor rarely got that, being human looking.

"The two heats." He lied. He knew nothing of human biology. But he learned that humans weren't that smart they were barbaric. They'd do anything to survive. This man was not like any human. He had too much intelligence. He would like to run some tests but he didn't have time. "And pocket's full of items that are not of Earth's origin." He continued. "We knew there must be extraterrestrial civilizations out there nearby but we were unable to contact them and now you of course." The Professor had to distract him, leeway the suspicion. "How's the head?" He nodded at the Doctor.

"It feels like something made contact with it." The Doctor rubbed the back of his head and winced. He could already feel the bruise forming. Great, that on top of a headache. What else more do I need?

"Those ruddy robots." Professor Jessop muttered. "Can't be trusted."

The Doctor knew that the Professor was putting on a show. That he possibly ordered the robot to attack him and bring him here. The robot was still out there somewhere and Mandy wasn't safe. He had to get back to her. But she could handle herself, couldn't she? She would have to for now. He had to convince Jessop that he didn't know what he knew.

"What brings you to Space station Nine?"

"Sort of last minute Holiday."

Professor Jessop found himself fascinated. But he didn't forget that the Doctor was his enemy, anything that resembled human form. Well the Professor's disguise was only temporary. "How did you get

"I got ways of getting in and out of places." It was if the Doctor already had every answer in his head before he asked a question.

"I might ask you a few more questions, as I'm curious of other species that resemble close to our own."

"No, go ahead." The Doctor didn't mind. He knew how to answer the Professor's questions, giving him what he wanted to hear but not giving anything away. And he doubted the Professor actually resembled a humanoid. He was using a perception filter perhaps or maybe spared a human using his body. Now that was a cruel thing to do.

"How do you know how to speak out language? Is that your normal form or have you adopted it to blend in?"

"What's wrong with my form?" The Doctor asked, his voice getting high like it did when he got defensive. He rather enjoyed how he looked. After all renegeration hadn't always been a garuntee. He was never fortunate in the good looks department, according to him. Though he did have worse than his last one.

"Nothing." The Professor was confused of what the Doctor was saying. Did he choose human form? The two hearts that narrowed it down to over 20,000 species.

"Better than the last time I think, had a bit of a wardrobe malfunction, bow ties what was I thinkin?" He'd rather wear a scarf any day. Maybe a hat. He put his hand to the back of his head again and winced.

"I'll get maintenance to fix the robots. They're circuity..."

The Doctor stood up. "No, you won't. Because there isn't. And there's only one robot. It doesn't belong on this ship. You're little servant, is he? Like you're using the dead consciousness of humans, controlling them as well. Whatever you're planning her stops now." He stood face to face with Jessop.

"As I expected." Jessop remained passive. "Gaivolarn,"

The butler robot came out from behind the door.

"That's a rubbish name for a robot..." His words were choked off as Gaivolarn put his cold metal fingers around the Doctor's neck and started

"Not too much pressure, You'll kill him too quickly. Let him be able to talk."

"At least you're considerate. And one thing you should now, the last bit probably isn't wise...What are you doing here."

"I can't go back home. I was forced from my world. But that's no important right now is it? Before I get back to business, I deserve a little fun. I will enjoy this, watching you die slowly. Then you're consciousness will be mine. I finally leave this forsaken part of the Universe and return home to my masters. And we will rage war against the human race."

"I sort of expected tha..." The robot's grip grew tighter, cutting off his air. It would take him longer to suffocate anyway. He had three lungs, therefor able to store air by strangulation was one of the worst ways to go.

He lifted his sonic screwdriver and pressed down a button. The robot froze and the Doctor was able to get out of it's grip.

The Doctor slipped out the door.

Mandy was standing in the hallway, reading one of the doors.

"Run." He said, grabbing her hand. He dragged her practicably down the hall.

"Doctor...slow down."

"Not a chance. There 's a killer Robot after us."

"I told you we couldn't trust it."

"I didn't say...oh just keep runnin." They did, twisting and turning in an endless maze. It seemed that they were going in circles.

"Ok, mind explaining what's going on here?" Mandy asked.

"The Professor I told you about, he's the power source, well old power source. Good thing I found 'em eh?"

"Good thing? He wants us killed doesn't he?"

"Looks, like...but maybe jus me..." Both of they now were walking. "He said something about being driven from his home."

"An alien invasion?" Mandy asked. "Or he was exiled."

"Probably or a war." They turned into a corridor but it was blocked off by a locked gate. Jessop rounded the corner.

"Who are you? And I'm talking to the thing inside that human body." The Doctor asked. "That isn't your original form."

"I am the Herald. I speak for my masters, the Bright Nobles of the Feond." As he spoke he started to glow, like the being possessing the body was made of light.

The Doctor seemed to cringe at the name. "What do you want? Where did you come from?"

" My planet was almost entirely destroyed. I fled through time..."

"You were invaded?" Mandy asked.

"A war. We lost. We lost both our worlds."

"Said it was a war." said Mandy.

"I said it was a war." Replied the Doctor. "You said it was an invasion."

"Close enough."

"My masters will avenge my torture. They are coming."

"What are you really doing here? I mean what they did was wrong but you didn't need to kill them."

"I just want to go home." Jessop said, or rather the thing inside, using his dead body. He was bathed in rings of golden light.

"If ye wan' to go home, I can help." The Doctor found he was getting rather tired of helping.

"I want to go home so my masters can have their vengeance."

"You're masters are dead." The Doctor said. "You can't go home because everything's in ruins. And you want to start a war like the one your masters fought?"

"They will not lose their planet."

"Correct. They will lose planets. The human race has inhabited millions of planets. That would take millions, billions of years."

"I will have my masters vengeance."

Mandy stepped forward but didn't get close to Jessop. "Herald, what happened?"

"Our home was lost. We wandered for so long we forgot what we really were. We could barely remember our planet. We began to forget the light and the music, and the bliss of laughter."

Mandy bit her lip and looked at the Doctor. No more banter from him, no more questions. He looked old, very old unspeakably old and sad...and so alone.

"Tell me about your war." The Doctor hoped he wasn't right.

"We were caught in the crossfire." The Herold said.

"Well, that narrows it down." said the Doctor. The Herald flickered as if he were a hologram and disappeared.

"Where'd he go?" Mandy asked, striating at the spot where the professor had vanished.

"If I'm guessing right he'd be..."

"The engine room." Mandy finished his sentence.

"I must speak with him." The Doctor's voice was low and earnest. "To reason with him. To make him understand. I want to talk to him because I think he doesn't know."

Mandy gave him a puzzled look. "Doesn't know what?"

"That the Bright Nobles are dead." The Doctor said. "That none of them survived."

"But he said they were coming."

"Either he's lying or he actually believes that his masters are still alive. They died at the end of the war." The Doctor said. "They were one of the many planets that were almost destroyed during the Time War. The Bright Nobles all died."

"All of them?" Mandy asked. "Are you sure?"

"Oh yes." The Doctor said softly. "I'm sure. He's afraid of you."

"Because he was tortured by humans." Mandy said. "But who can blame him? He's been alone for a very long time, without friends, without comfort. You know that we mean it no harm but he doesn't. He's terrified because he doesn't have anybody else. Because he doesn't know what to do. He's still being tortured with everyone dead."

"He's afraid, but worse, he's powerful. He could do a lot of damage if he isn't stopped."

The Doctor strolled forward. "Hello." He said, giving the Herald a wave. "Remember me? You told me how terrible it was to see your world end. Remember." said the Doctor, shielding his eyes from it's glare.

"Yes." He answered, his lips curled. "How could I forget."

"Good, hoped you would. Memorable face isn't that. That could get annoying, looking this good. You know what I'm bragging, never mind, nothing last's forever. Like wondering about space on your own, until you were captured. Bit unfortunate. I've seen a living sun being tortured by humans as a power source. Anyway, tell you what how would you like to go home?"

"Home."

"It could happen. If you want it to happen. I know how lonely you've been." The Doctor said with whole honesty. The first time he'd been completely honest with anyone. "I know what it's like, to see the world end, to wander the stars in search of something, anything. But you're not alone. Your species, it's not dead by any means. There are so many of them and they're doing great things. Marvelous things. They're kind people, they work hard, have a future. You van go back to them. You can be among your own kind again. You share the peace they're building. You can be a part of it."

"My home is with my masters. I must be there to serve them."

"I know you think that. I know you've thought it for a very long time. But it doesn't have to be that way..."

"My masters are coming. The Bright Nobles will rise again."

The Doctor shook his head. "I'm sorry." He said. "But that's not going to happen. You have a choice can go home in chains or you can go home in peace. Either way it's your home and it's where you're going. There isn't anywhere else to go."

"My masters are coming. Our world will be restored."

"But they're not coming. They can't. They're gone. But you still have somewhere to go. Somewhere much better than the world you lost, much better than wandering the world in the dark, where you're welcome, where you'll be at peace. You've been lost for so long. But everything can change, if you want it to change." The Doctor took in his own words. They seemed to fit him more than the Herald. Change. Change could be good.

"Liar." The Herald, shouted. "Deceiver. The Bright Nobles live. I shall reunited with my masters and we will declare war against the humans. They will eclipse their suns and boil their skies. Their worlds will burn at their touch. They will break and extinguish every last empire. The heavens will bear no trace of your existance."

"Then it's settled then. I gave you a choice. And I am not sorry for what I'm about to do."

"Doctor." Mandy had overheard him. "You're way of stopping him, you're not going to kill him are you?"

"He killed all everyone on this ship."

"Doctor, all those people..." She just realized. They were dead and they didn't know.

"Yeah, I know."

"Even the children?" When she looked at him she couldn't finish his sentence. His face was expressionless, but his eyes burned with fury. It scared her and yet impressed her. While his face displayed no emotion his eyes said it all.

"You still feel sorry for him?" The Doctor couldn't even look at her when he asked, because he knew her answer.

"Yes." Mandy said.

"That's what I thought. That's why I have to be this." He turned to the Herald. "I got one more thing to say. Let my people go."

Mandy smiled. It made her thrilled that he counted humans, as his people. But this wasn't one of his finest moments. It had to be hard.

"Not bad, eh? I always wanted to try that." He continued to speak to the Herald."You're using their data ghosts to re-power the ship, you have their consciousness on a re-lay. an aware human consciousness, five billion people and I can hear them screaming. You know what I do now?" While he had been talking he had been fiddling with the converter. He walked around from behind it. "There has to be a release switch somewhere." He then tripped over the cables trailing from the converter. Mandy did a face palm. Great he was clumsy.

Then the ship admitted a noise.

"There's one thing you should know about me. When I see something obvious, I can;t help but not to ignore it. So...say if I noticed a button in the middle of the floor..." He removed his foot to reveal the button. "Usually the thing you're looking for is the last thing that's right in front of you."

Had he tripped on purpose or on accident. She would probably never know. He probably just used his fault and turned it into a clever distraction.

"No. What have you done?" The Herald shrieked.

"Set them free."

The ground beneath them seemed to rumble, and it spread throughout the ship. There was a sound of groaning metal.

"Doctor." Mandy said. "Sorry to interrupt. If you set them free, what's powering the ship?"

"Right. We should be escaping now."

"Run?" Mandy asked beating from saying it.

The Doctor nodded, grabbing her hand. "Run."

The butler robot advanced on them. The Doctor put an arm out in front of Mandy, backing up until they were against a wall.

"In times like these I wish I had my sonic screwdriver." He had left it back in Jessop's office.

"Stop you're complaining." Mandy made to move his arm but stopped when she saw the robots eyes burn an angry red, raising it's arm, which now had a lazer attached. "We're only going to be killed by a killer robot that's dressed like a butler." She turned and buried her head into his shoulder. She dared to lift it when the firing didn't come.

The last remaining data energy formed into a transparent female figure, Elsa. The energy shoots from her hand, electrifying the robot. "I can't hold much longer. The core is broken. Go, get to the gateway, go."

"How..." The Doctor began.

"Doctor, come on!" Mandy grabbed his hand. This time she was practically dragging him. The robot behind them exploded into a shower of metal and sparks.

Once they were safely through the fisher, they both collapsed in a heap on the floor, back in the abandoned church attic.

While on the other side, Elsa's data ghost lost form and was sucked back into the converter with the others but it was too late. The ship continued to crash but blew up way before it came back into the atmosphere.

"That was cutting it a bit close," Claudia said. "Don't you think?" She stopped her watch just before it hit zero.

"Not close enough." Said the Doctor where he sat on the floor. He was out of breath.

"Doctor, you know you couldn't save her. She was already dead. They all were." Mandy assured him. It was her way of telling him that it wasn't his fault.

"No, I know." The Doctor said as Mandy stood up. She offered him her hand but he pushed it away. He pulled himself up. "She held on for two minutes, the human race, refusing to die until they at least saved a few lives."

"You don't really think we're idiots then?" Mandy asked.

He made his way out the door. They left the church. Mandy and Claudia followed him out into the sunlight.

He stopped walking. He put his hands in his pockets and contemplated the summer day, the green grass, the blue sky, the bird song, the warm sun, the perpetual presence, the familiar movement of the Earth, turning beneath his feet. _Somewhere much better. _"We're done here." He said. "Time to go."

* * *

He wasn't quite done here. UNIT. He'd never be done with saving the Earth though. He was thinking of staying once he sorted the rips in space/time, the rips in the fabric of the Universe. After that, he could imagine himself, staying at UNIT like the good old days.

He walked through the Hub. The young blonde woman was sitting at her desk.

"Why do you walk like that, walking around like you own the place." She asked him.

"Like what? I'm just walkin'."

"Yeah, sure." She handed his screwdriver back to him. She had grabbed it from Jessop's office while the Doctor had gone to talk to the Herald. "I believe this belongs to you."

"Why'd you feel sorry?" He asked Mandy.

"What?" She looked up from her paper work on her desk.

"You still feel sorry for the Herald, don't you?"

Mandy slowly nodded. She was unsure why the Doctor was asking her this. But she tried to see things in a different way, if they had been reversed, that if she had been asking him.

"After all he did, killed all those humans and tried to kill you and me." He looked at her strangely, titling his head at her, like a dog did. "I don't understand you sometimes."

"Then try to understand him, Doctor." Mandy said, softly. "Try to glimpse inside his world." She wanted to say, "You've seen it." but she didn't want to upset him. "The Empire he served comes crashing down, he escapes the last battle, only to wander for centuries, aimlessly, without purpose, alone, then when he finds civilization, he's tortured, while he desperately waits for his world to return. But it never could. It's been dead for centuries." She paused, wondering if she had upset him anyway. It seemed that way. Unable to carry on the conversation she changed the subject. There was something she always been intending to ask him. "Doctor, can I ask you something?"

"Make it quick." He started walking back to his office, she started to follow. "I got important things to do." He set the maps and documents he was carrying on his desk. He looked over at her.

She hesitated, deciding if she should ask him.

"Well, if you're going to take all day..."

"My planet burns, like yours..."

"Yeah." He answered quickly. "There are far worse things, knowing that you're the one that caused it. I've seen whole plantes burn, the end of everything. Everything ends and everything dies."

"I've been meaning to ask you. When you regenerate is it like being reborn as a new person?"

"No, nothing like that. I'm the same person."

"But how do you know?"

"I have all the same memories of my past lives. Memories make you who you are."

"Do you feel the same, about past experiences? If you don't mind me asking."

"Yes and no." If anything it was worse, depending. They might have different views but the recent deaths always hurt more. He did feel like a new person but he was the same man. Everything he became in his old life was erased but the memories and experiences lasted, the pain, ever lingering... "but sometimes not as deep." That's what made him the Doctor, knowing pain. "Wha do you care about what I feel?"

She shrugged. "You still make me curious." He was the man of endless surprises. Endless wonder. He had so much mystery behind him she probably would never figure him out. No one ever did.

"Curious is good. I like curious. But too much 's not good fer ye." He tapped her lightly on the head with the tip of his sonic screwdriver. "There's only so much you should know." He turned on his heels and swandered off back to his TARDIS for the night.

Once he was inside, Mandy turned on her heels, a prideful step in her stride, about to walk out of his office. _Success. _He couldn't hide from her completely_._

He peered back out of his TARDIS."Wha' was it you were really going to ask me?"

"Back at the space station, you started having headaches..."

"I can still hear them."

"The data ghosts? But they're all dead now." She had been trying to ask how his head was.

"Not them. There was this race...these people...when they were alive." He closed his eyes. He couldn't bring himself to say that they were his people.

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"I stopped them, twice."

"What do you mean stopped?"

"I killed them. Why can I still hear them? It stopped for awhile. Tell me why." He nearly was shouting. It made Mandy flinch slightly. He was shouting at her because he knew if he let her in, if he let her travel with him she would be sad later. They both would. He would be hurt. They always hurt him in the end. Not this time.

There was only one reason why he could hear those voices. He hoped he was wrong for once. A part of him didn't believe it. It was just survivors guilt that was finally catching up to him. But another part of him didn't believe that either.

No more. He thought. I don't want to hurt anymore. A part of him sobbed inside. The other part, told him to shut up. He had to try, take all his feelings and shove them down, make sure nothing can hurt him again. In order to do that he needed to cut himself off, from her. "I promise you I'll never put you in danger like that again."

"Why's that then?"

"I don't need your help." He went back into his TARDIS and shut the door.

_So much for success. It's going to be much harder than that_.

Though she was thinking that she was worried that he was too far gone.


	6. Gone in 60 Minutes

Episode 5: Gone in 60 minutes

** Just another normal day saving the world, or is it? The Doctor and Mandy find themselves on Dec. 21st 2012. Mandy wanders why the world didn't end. The Doctor takes her to find out. So what really happened to the Mayans?**

* * *

"Doctor, be careful!" Mandy called. "We don't know where it is!"

"I know," The Doctor nodded and looked around as he carefully made his way through the truck loading dock. "I'm careful as can be!" He stumbled over a can of paint.

Mandy gave him a look."Most of the time…" He muttered.

"Doctor, knock it off!" Mandy snapped as she heard something clatter against the ground.

"That wasn't me!" He was on the opposite side of the loading bay from where she had heard the noise. "See anything?" The Doctor asked as they slowly approached the pile of crates in the corner.

"If I did you would be the first to know," Mandy hissed quietly. She scanned the area for movement.

They went through the Time Fisher. They saw a figure all dressed in leather laying on the ground.

The Doctor scanned it with his sonic screwdriver.

"Is he ok?" Mandy came up next to him.

"It's a slab." He looked at the results on the sonic. "I think it's a slab. Is it a slab?" He scanned it and checked the readings again.

"And what is that when it's at home then?"

"A basic slave drone." He put the screwdriver back in his top pocket. The slab's fingers started to twitch. All of a sudden it shot up into a sitting position and grabbed the Doctor by the throat.

The Doctor tried reaching for his sonic, bad move, putting it back in his pocket.

"What you doing?" She asked him.

"Sonic...top pocket."

Mandy retrieved it from his pocket. "What button do I press?"

"Just think."

"Like psychic paper?"

"Exactly."

She aimed it at the slab's hand. It's grip relaxed.

"What was that about

"Maybe some sort of defense mechanism?" Mandy guessed.

"That's a good guess." He took in one more deep breath and rubbed his neck. He took the sonic screwdriver from her as he stood up. "That comes in handy, get it? The hand...one of these days I'll be able to tell a joke, just you watch."

"Yeah, right." Mandy didn't quite believe that. But that'd be the day. "Where are we?"

"Today is..." He paused to put a finger up in the air. "December 21st, 2012."

"There's something important about that day." Mandy thought for a moment. "Didn't Mayans predict that the world was supposed to end?"

"People always say the world's going to end. It doesn't mean it does. And the Mayans didn't exactly say that the world was going to end. They didn't finish their calender."

"But that doesn't mean the world ended. I'm living proof that it didn't." She wondered if he saved it and that's why it didn't end.

"The Mayan calender ended on the 21st. " The Doctor explained. "The end of a civilization, not the world, maybe their world. A whole civilization. They didn't finish their callender because they were lazy." He observed Mandy. "Why do you think that is?" He asked her like he was a teacher quizzing his student. The Doctor was like that. He acted like an old professor. In ways he was. Well he was old and socially awkward when it came talking to younger people. He said and did things like an old man. That was the way Mandy saw him. But guilty as charged she was falling in love with him. Not the way you're in love, in love with someone. Maybe just a tiny sliver she loved him that way. She knew she couldn't though. She kept reminding herself that he was old and he was alien. Their feelings wouldn't even be the same. His were not even on the same wave length as a humans. And he was damaged. She wouldn't know how to fix him but she could maybe fix him the way a friend only could.

"It went missing because they were invaded by aliens." Mandy took a guess. She didn't make it sound that way, in order to impress him.

The Doctor smiled. He was impressed. He could kiss her but she'd get the wrong idea. "How'd ye think of tha?"

"Well it's most likely isn't it?" She crossed her arms. "That's what happens doesn't it?" It was the most likely explanation.

"We'll have to find out won't we?" The Doctor said, the smile was still on his face. She followed him back through the fisher and walked back to the TARDIS.

The TARDIS landed. Mandy quickly followed the Doctor out.

"There's a ton of documentation on this and…it's today, December 21st, 2012. Dismissing it without checking it out is a mistake. Now, 900 AD, about the time Mayan civilization collapsed. The reason is unknown."

"And we're here to figure that out instead of finding out why the world didn't end."

"Many Mayans also dismiss the apocalyptic predictions. Rather than the end of time itself, the inscription refers to the start of a new era. There were so said prophecies on a hieroglyph.

"You're not listening."

"The interpretation of the hieroglyph by Sven Gronemeyer of La Trobe University in Australia had been studying the stone tablet. He said the inscription describes 'a god will descend from the skies,' I wouldn't be surprised if that was me."

That made her switch off her intent of him listening to her thought, temporarily. "No offense, you don't look like a God. And no offense to the Mayans, although they were highly civilized people, they were still barbaric and primitive. If you were them, how else would you describe a man in a blue box that fell out of the sky?"

"Barbaric and primitive?" Humans were still humans to him. Even if they were 'primitive' they were all the same.

"You're still not listening."

"The world isn't going to end Mandy." The Doctor finally said. He had been neglecting her for the past few minutes. He only answered her or she'd be getting on his nerves.

"It could. Anywhere you are, there's danger. So alien invasion, most likely." Said Mandy, her mind firm on it. He had to face it. He was a danger magnet. She wondered if the Doctor deliberately allowed trouble to follow him or it always had and he was unfortunate.

"You dun 'ave to worry about tha'. It's in good hands."

"That's when I get worried." She stated. He could be way in over his head. And that's why he needed her.

_ 1500 B.C. Mayan Empire_

The Mayan Empire was much more advanced being in communication with aliens. Aliens that could control the weather. That explained the weird weather patterns in 2012. The Mayans unknowingly predicted that on December 21, 2012 they would invade Earth. All because the Mayans refused to give back the knowledge they were given. The aliens had figured out the knowledge would spread throughout the human population. And they would use it in the 21st century to navigate and spread out among the stars. Like many alien species before them, they thought that the humans were permitives and didn't deserve the great wonders of space, forever re-populating, threatening to wipe out other alien species. But they failed to see that was what evolution did. They refused, afraid to believe that humans would on day become the superior species in the Universe.

The Mayan's refused to give back the information and continued to use it. It caused a war between the aliens and the Mayans. Their empire had started to diminish.

The Doctor couldn't do anything about it really. The disapperance of the Mayan Empire was a fixed point. But he could stop the aliens from invading the Earth in the future.

The Doctor and Mandy met the Emperor. Instead of normal guard he had two slabs standing guard.

The Emperor said they were guardians sent from the Gods. Thee Doctor tries to convince him that his 'Gods' are planning to turn against him.

The Emperor doesn't believe him of course. He demands the two slabs to grab him.

The two slabs advanced on the Doctor. The Doctor backed up bumping into a display, the object It was a tablet with writing on it. It had split in half, in three places.

"What did you break?" Mandy had a feeling she already knew.

"That would...not be the calender." The Doctor said. "It would be a big round thing."

"I know that Doctor." Mandy was on the verge of smacking him. When would he see that she was smarter than he credited her for.

The Druids warned them that they had One hour to give back their knowledge.

* * *

_Decemeber 21, 2012_

The alien space crafts were sucked in by the magnetic field. The Doctor had led them, in a Helicopter to the Bermuda triangle.

Mandy asked him, communication through a radio on the ground. "How are you safe?"

The Doctor pointed the sonic screwdriver out the window. The TARDIS became visible.

"TARDIS shielding." The Doctor said. "Put her on auto pilot."

They got back to UNIT safely. The Doctor was explaining to Mandy that on the 21st of December the Bermuda Triangle was blocked off because of the high magnetic field. "The sun is closer to the Earth than it's ever been. The mantel...that's the magnetic field the sun gives off...Think of the Earth as an Orange. It has four grids going around."

"And...?" She had to ask because he seemed to have stopped his sentence short.

"That's it just that."

"You forgot what you were going to say."

"I did not! I was finished."

"Were not."

"I'm running out of ways to explain things."

"So what happens now?"

"They find the other half of the calender."

"You knew that the whole time!"

He just looked at her smugly.

"Why do you keep saving us, and protecting the Earth if you think we're stupid?" She wondered why he always saved them, but then insulted them. Sometimes he made no sense at all.

"I think humans are kind of fun. Time Lords, I consider them to be a stuffy lot."

"But you're a Time Lord."

He didn't answer her right away, continuing to fix the engine. He unattached a wire. "No." He was more than just a Time Lord. Mandy wondered what he meant. Then he added, "I"m nothing like them."

He himself was confused sometimes, why he kept coming hack. Sometimes they can be stupid, and most violent creatures. Even though he questioned why he even bothered, he always had a fondness for them no matter what. Perhaps it started all those years ago he first came to Earth. Humans were closest to Time Lords in appearance and feelings but humans were capable of such emotions no other species was capable of. They could be really intelligent if they put their minds to it. They had succeeded were even Time Lords haven't. They never failed to amaze him. There wasn't a star or galaxy they never reached. Ok that was an exaggeration. He was fond of humanity because of it's survivability, indomitable spirit, and explorers spirit.

He acted like he wasn't fond of them and was superior. He teased them because it was his way of giving them attention without actually telling them that he liked them because then he might get embarrassed if they really knew what he felt about them. Mostly he did it to see how they'd react. He'd use it to give a reason for more communication.

He couldn't take his eyes off her. What made her keep coming back? Usually once he opened his mouth he did it without thinking. He had a talent for saying exactly the wrong thing. Mandy was different, well, perhaps not so different. He'd not been able to say the right things to her today. He wondered if she ever regretted meeting him. Her life would have been simpler.

He'd forced his way into her life, and like a stray dog, she'd let him stick around. At some point, she'd accepted him as a friend. He didn't mind if she thought him as a friend, but she couldn't be his. He would just leave it at that, for now.

* * *

AN: Not one of my best chapters. This focussing more on the Doctor's relationship with Mandy. Next few will probably ber better. Must be still grabbing your attention though if you've read this far.


	7. Borrowed Time

David hesitated on taking his usual shortcut through the graveyard. For some reason, the place struck him as particularly spooky that night. Must be the moonlight and the way it reflects off the stones….He was already late home. He had to take the a deep breath, David pushed open the gates, and stepped into the graveyard. He started walking hurriedly, making his way past the graves that were all around. Their was a new statue that looked like a gargoyle. The eaerie glow of the street lamps made it seema as if it was alive. Abruptly, the sound of wings fluttering echoed through the graveyard. David squinted through the darkness, and thought he saw someone moving behind the statue. "Hey…!" He started towards it, "If that's you Piper Everston and her brother Elwood trying to scare me, you can forger it.."and then he stopped as he saw a dark haired woman in her night dress. she lifted her face to him, hardly able to contain his gasp of shock.

Blood ran down from the woman's eyes, looking as if she were crying tears of blood. The next thing David knew, pain exploded in his forehead, and then he crumpled to the ground at the woman's feet.

"This is the late 19th century." The Doctor said. "Never dropped by here for awhile."

"I wonder why." Mandy said sarcastically. They were not far from a graveyard The Brigadier, or "Mac," as his best friends called him, went along with them through the time fisher. A few UNIT soldiers waited on the other side, among the soldiers was Captain Charles Harper.

"Whatever is causing these..time disturbances," Mac began, "I suggest that we sort it right away."

"If only it were that simple, Brigadier." The Doctor patted him on the shoulder.

"And I would also suggest that you don't call me Brigadier." As the two men talked, Mandy thought she heard a rustling and a flattering of wings. It could be her imagination playing tricks on her on this cool damp night.

"Then why did you become one?" The Doctor asked him.

"I wanted to follow my grandfather's legacy." But no matter how the Brigadier tried it still sounded like an excuse.

"And It wouldn't have to do with just meeting me, would it?" Mac didn't anwser.

Mandy was being cautious, feeling that something was following them. Passing the graveyward, they a figure laying on the ground. Beside it was an empty platform where it seemed a statue once stood, for there was a perfect out line where something once rested. Around the edges were covered with grim and moss. "Is he dead?" Mac asked. The Doctor turned him over. It was a young teenage boy. There were trails of blood under his eyes that had dried. "Come on. " The Doctor said, grimly. "I hate these kind of places."

"We can't just leave him." Mandy started to say.

"If the grounds keep finds us here, how will it look? Someone will com for him in the morning." He turned to leave. There was a fluttering of wings this thing.

"We are Squall." The gargoyal like creatures said in unison.

"Ok, that is just freaky." Mandy said as she kept running ocasionaly glancing over her shoulder.

"Down, there." The Doctor nodded to a man hole that led down to the sewers. "You got to be joking." Mandy said. The Doctor grabbed her by the arm and gave her a light shove forward. She tried to open it but it wouldn't budge. "Here." The Doctor opened the hatch and climbed down.

Mac didn't know how his Grandfather put up with this man. Perhaps he had more paticence. If he had known his Grandfather had been fortunate, though he hardly kept up with the third Doctor, Mac wouldn't be too happy. And he wasn't now. "We're stuck in the 19th century. Of all places, and those creatures after us and we're hidding in a sewer." The situations this man got into. How did his grandfather put up with it, patience or no?

They made their way through the tunnel, their only torch light was the Doctor's sonic screwdriver.

"Could be worse." Mandy said, as her hand plopped into what she hoped was mud.

She looked up and was glad she had stopped or she would have run into the Doctor. Catching a glimspe what he was looking at, a scream rose in her throat, but the Doctor covered her mouth with his hand.

A woman with looong hair and a white dressing grown, sat curled up in a corner, her blank eyes starting back, crying a flood of bloody tears.

"Shuffle back." The Doctor didn't have to tell them that she was dead.

"Why is it when we're in tight places something always bad happens?" asked Mandy.

"They're not always tight places..." _But if that's what ye like."_

Before he could get any further, Mandy slapped him on the arm.

"Ow." He grabbed him shoulder where she had hit him. At least he could feel psyical pain. Mandy thought. He was never to keen on showing emotions.

"I knew what you were thinking." The Doctor might be an alien but he was a man as well and all men thought the same.

"The bodies we found...did the creatures do that?" Mac asked after what seemed to be along silence.

"The Squall feed on energy, psychic energy...parasites of the mind." The Doctor explained. "I met them once before. With some...people. They weren't as remotly cheery as you are."

They found an exit.

"What if there are more out there?" Mandy debated if it was a good idea. Yet, when has the Doctor ever had a good idea without danger persuing.

"I'd rather we take our chances." He lifted the hatch. The streets looked clear.

"Last time I follow you into a sewer." Mandy wiped her hands on her freashly pressed blue jeans.

Mac suddenly recalled something. Good old history lessons. "We were in a sewer. Plumbing wasn't around until

"It's not a sewer." The Doctor said. "It's tunnel. They've been digging it."

"That woman in the tunnel...should we find her family?" Mandy said sadly. They would find the boy in the morning but it would probably take a long time to find the woman.

"Uh...not right now. We got more things to handle.."

"Doctor, she's a human be..." She was cut of by a high pitched screech.

"Doctor, I would have you see to that we..Oh, that." Mac said as one of the squall rose in the air as if ready to attack. And it did. There were only three squall at the moment. One for each of them. Soon they seemed to give up on them and went for the Time Lord. Way too quickly.

He had seen enough death and gained no satisfaction from it.

_Kill you. _The words crashed through the mental defences. The squall's face was level with his.

_Not if I kill you first. _That was his thought. He was the bringer of darkness, the calm before the storm, the murderer of whole worlds. But he didn't kill people. They simply chose to die for him or they asked for it.

He found himself not resisting. He could faintly hear Mandy's shouts, while Mac was trying to get the creature off of him.

Mandy's cries of alarm brought him out of it, a human's cry of distress.

If they consumed his mind they would have the secrets of the universe. They would consume till there was nothing left. He started putting up brick walls in his mind left and right. He made as many as he could. But they already got the information they needed.

"YOU. ARE. THE DOCTOR. WE Will CONSUME YOUR MIND."

"No." The Doctor raised his sonic screw driver. It made a whirring sound. That seemed to have an effect on them. It broke the squalls consentration. The sound being too much for them, they flew off into the night.

The Doctor leaned back, the brick wall of a building kept him from falling. But he couldn't stay standing. The mental attack had taken all of his strength. He slid down the wall.

Mac rushed over to him. He saw a single tear of blood His eyes were closed. As Mac bent down to check the Doctor's pulse, the Doctor's eyes opened.

"Keep her..." Was the only thing the Doctor could say before he lost conciousness.

Mandy was running toward them but Mac put his arm out to keep her back. "See if there's anyone in." Mac looked at the door of the building.

Mandy went over and pounded on it.

The outside light of the building turned on and the door opened. A young man in his thirties stepped out, "What the Devil is all this noise." He then caught the sight of the three people.

"We need to bring him inside." Mandy pleaded. "He can't stay out here. Please we need your help."

The young man nodded and motioned for them in. "Quick then, before more of them come back."

Angelchrist's nephew, Michael was staying in the house, watching over it as he was away on his travels.

He made the little group and himself some tea but no one drank it. The blonde girl was sitting by the younger man,( they had layed on his Uncle's bed), with a bowl of water and a wash cloth, gently whiping the already dried blood from his face.

The way she cared for him was more than like a family member.

As Mandy wiped the blood from the Doctor's face, she tried to keep her mind blank. The worry still plagued her. She refused the tea, fearing that her hand would shake. She was barly keeping it under control now.

As he lay there, unmoving, she took in his features. He looked drained, ancient. Mandy hated that look. It didn't seem to belong there, yet it did.

Mac would never fotget the look he saw in the Doctor's eyes. They had looked so haunted, so lost, so miserable, so alone and lonely. It was like looking into an old man's eyes. Even he knew the Doctor was old he had forgotten. The look should never belong on his face. He understood why the Doctor told him to keep Mandy back, he didn't want her to see.

The Brigadier and Mandy chatted with Angelchrist, asking how he knew about the Squall.

"My Uncle encountered them. He warned me about them when he sent for me to look after this place. I was skeptical at first."

"And where is this Uncle of yours?" Brigadier asked.

"He's away. An archiologist. but he'd prefer freelance."

"Will our friend be alright?" Mandy asked.

"Surely, he will recover." said Mac.

"He must be stronger than he looks." Angelchrist responded. "Otherwise he'd have been dead already."

"Believe me you have no idea..." She glanced toward the bed. The Doctor was waking up. Imediatly she went to his side.

He mumbled something in response when she grabbed his hands. He must have been remembering something, as his eyes were closed tight. "Susan."

"It's alright Doctor."

He opened his eyes. The girl before him was not Susan but he had seen her before. He was sure of it.

She didn't know who Susan was but she had a feeling she's been gone a long time. She meant a lot to the Doctor.

"You look familiar." He said to her.

"It's me, Doctor. Mandy." She felt his hand begin to slacken in her grip. His eyes were closing again. "Doctor?"

His eyes opened. "Jo." He tried to sit up, "Listen, Jo. I need to...Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow."

"He's delerious." Mac said.

"I don't know the side effects." Angelchrist said. "No one's surived."

"Jo. Tell them I'm not...oh no..did I regenerate again?"

"Well, no. Sort of. Several weeks ago..." As she spoke his eyes began to close. He muttered something to her again. It sounded like, "Don't cry." Mandy didn't fully catch it, so he could have said, "Don't lie."

She tried keeping him awake and talking. "Doctor." She shook his hand. "Doctor."

A hand suddenly rested on her shoulder. It was Mac's. "He needs his rest. What the Squall did was probably too much. He 's not young as he used to be."

"I heard tha'." His tone had changed to a much deeper one, like the one he used when he was serious, but different somehow. " Just because I'm old doesn't mean I can't..." He closed his eyes and grimaced in pain. Soon he was unconcious again.

"Let him rest." Macrepeated. "He'll sleep it off. It's the best we can do for him right now."

Suddenly the Doctor sat up, like nothing had happened. He pulled back the covers and got to his feet. "Right, now. Where were we?"

"Doctor, don't you need rest?" Mandy was still concerned.

"Rest? Rest is for wimps. You 'spect me to doze with all this excitment?"

When she tried to get him to reconsider it, he interjected, "And jus' like rest, naps are for old people."

"Doctor," It was Mac's turn to try.

"And I'm not that old." The Doctor turned to the Bridagier. "Now, what do, we do about the squall?" The Doctor started to examine the items that littered the work bench in front of him. He picked up a top hat, about to place it on his head but then he put it on Mandy's, it fell down over her eyes, "And you, stop your squallerin'. He took the hat off her and sat it down. Then it was in his hands again, then it wasn't.

Before anyone else could speak their silence was greeted by a fluttering of wings. The Squall had found them.

"They found us." Angelchrist called.

"Thanks for pointing that out." The Doctor said. "What's your name?"

"Michael." But the Doctor the Doctor continued as if he hadn't heard him.

He picked up the hat a third time. "Not my type of hat, but it'll do."

"What are you doing?" Mandy asked. Why did he keep fiddling with that hat?

"Doctor, now's not the time experiance with the latest fashion sense." Mac said a bit annoyed.

"Wasn't going to wear it. Creating a distraction..." He fragmented his sentances, (even cirtified English majors would cringe. You'd think that the Doctor, being as old as he is, would have proper grammer.) as he reached in his pockets and took out wires and circuitry. "So I can locate the hive leader to have a little chat, while the rest are chasing this thing."

Mandy watched him closely. Maybe he couldn't multitasks, work and talk at the same timem or his mind was still making a funny turn, trying to recover from the Squall attack. And he wanted to go out there and face them again? "There has to be another way." Mandy said, "You fought them before."

"Yeah. I sent them through a rift in time and space. They should technically never exsisted."

"How are they back?" She asked him.

"Since something is unraveling time, they came back."

"Is that even possible?" Mac asked. This time he was ignored or the Doctor hadn't heard him.

"Now I'm a little rusty." The Doctor said as he made last adjustments on the hat. "It should do. My past self will repair it in the future so he can use it...I know all very complicated." He turned to Michael. "Does this old building have a cellar, or a secret passage, would do."

"I don't know." Michael said, quite rudely. "I don't live here."

The Doctor found the secret passage way behind the bookcase. He sent the Brigadier and Michael outside, after telling them the plan. "You're the distraction. Be very careful...with this." He added, handing the top hat to Angelchrist.

Once they were outside, Mandy asked, "Even if it works, what they did you , will it happen again?" She was worried that it could be worse next time.

" Just a side effect. I should be fine now."

"Should?"

"I need to trick them, if it works..."

"Then what?" He wasn't seriously thiking of using himself as bait. Well, she guessed that made up for sending the others out there as bait. "Doctor, you're not fit..."

"Not fit? Not fit. If I sent any one of you out there, your brian would be fried in an instant. "

"What about that boy you just sent out there. And Mac."

"They've got the hat. They're protected. The Squall won't attack them, as long as they stay together. They'll follow the signal, giving me enough time with the leader. Who else better than someone with a inferior mind."

"Inferior? Right now, you're not better. You sent Mac and Angelchrist out there and you want me to sit on the side lines?"

"You're different."

"How? How am I any different than any other..."

He spun around on her. His eyes bore into hers, dark eyes that were always cold, no warmth in them. When he wasn't angry they always looked void of emotion, at least to her. When he faced her, he seemed to tower over her, though his average height was 5'9 and she was 5'5. "Do not argue with me."

She dropped her head, looking away from him. She couldn't look into them any longer. It hurt. Maybe nothing lay behind those eyes and she would never get past his barriers. Perhaps there were none, not anymore. He was so badly damaged, emotionaly, she saw it in those eyes. It was as if someone took his ability of feeling and replaced the spark in his eyes (that should be there.) with cold bitterness, and pain. But those eyes also brought something else. A feeling came to her. It was a fight or flight response. A part of her wanted to flee, retreat to the back corners of her mind, but she decided to stay.

The Squall saw through the distraction but not too quick. But they found the Doctor before he could get to the leader.

A few more emerged from the tunnel hatch.

One of them was bigger than the rest. _It must be the leader._ Mandy thought.

Just then Mac and Angelchrist came running up, from down the street. "It didn't work." Amgelschrist said.

Mandy nodded, sadly, "I know."

One of the squall headed toward her.

"No, stay away from her. You know better a simple human mind won't do. It's me you want isn't it?" The Doctor said.

"WE. SAW INTO YOUR MIND. IT IS DAMAGED."

"Oh are really thick. If you really saw into my mind, you'd know I have a habit of tricking people into thinkining what I want them to."

The Squall seemed to stop and think about this.

"THE INFORMATION WE HAVE GATHERED FROM YOU IS CORRECT." The leader said.

" WE SHALL FEAST." The rest said in unison.

"THE UNIVERSE WILL BE OURS." added the leader.

"Well, then." The Doctor raised his arms out, "What are waiting for. All you can eat, boys."

"Doctor, No." Mandy felt the urge to run to him but strong arms held her back. Michael's.

He felt the squall comb through his mind. He didn't bother to put up any mental blocks this time. There was no point. There were too many of them. Pain exploded in his head and then he crupled to the ground as they began to consume his every thought. If they consumed enough of his knowledge it would kill them. But as they learned every thought, every memory he was re-living them, all the deaths he ever caused. Adric's, Donna's, his daughter's, Amy's, Rivers. His own planet burining in defaning silence.

Mandy couldn't bear it. He was bleeding from both eyes now. But not once did he call out in pain as they pried at his mind. But that didn't mean he wasn't feeling it. There was tension in his body, one of his hands clenched into a fist, his own nails digging into the flesh of his palm, making it bleed. They might have to take everything for it to be enough to destroy them.

Finally his body went slack. And the squall suddenly stopped. Their joyous sreaching fell silent. Mandy thought the only reason they stopped was because the Doctor was dead.

He could hear someone was walking toward him. It was a female, he could tell from the sobs as she put her head on his chest for a second. Then he felt her liftting head, and wiping the blood from his face with her fingers. When he opened his eyes she was staring at him like he had come back from the dead. Oh no. He hadn't... He sat up, staring back at her. Though his eyes no longer bled he felt like he had been hit in the head with a hammer. The dull throb had increased though he had kept the pain to himself. He could tell Mandy was catching on. Her concern only made him feel worse. However, knowing they could have stopped all this sooner.

"We have to get out of her." Mandy said as he sat up, ready to pull him up off the ground. "Before they..."

"No..we..Don't have to. Mandy look." Ok his voice was still the same so he didn't die. The Squall began to crumble like they were made out of stone. They crumbled till they were nothing but dust.

"What..hapened to them?" Aksed the Brigadier.

"Me." Said the Doctor. "I tricked them into thinking my mind wasn't damaged. Consuming an unstable mind would be like poison to them." He started to walk back to were they arrived. Mandy waved to Angelchrist as they left.

It was a long drive back to UNIT. The Doctor didn't complain like Mandy thought he would. He rested his head against the cool window the whole way.

He was back in his lab, sitting at his desk. Flattening his hand across his forehead, he sqeezed his eyes shut. Nothing blocked out the faint whispers though. Telling him he was a fool. Why should he even bother? A part of him died every time he died or lost someone, his reality altered.

Suddenly a cool hand landed on his shoulder. The girl had the most quizical look on her face, hand still hovering in the air as she studied him. The Doctor hated the gaze, ducking his head and scrambling back into his sanctuary by putting up his sheild. He went into the bathroom, leaning against the door frame. Sweat had began to sprout along his hair line as he struggled for control of himself. He could not break down, not now, not ever.

On the other side of the door Mandy stood alert, inches from the wood as she listened for the sound of distress. All she heard was the running water.

The Doctor turned on the faucet, letting the water run for a few seconds. He splashed cold water on his face before. He let it run for a few more before turning it off. Hestiantly he looked in the mirror. avoiding his eyes, that were now a dark brown. Avoiding the eyes that looked back at him the best he could, he focused on the things he could control. He studied his face. He didn't have to worry about taming his straight black hair. But still had to comb through the knots every now and then. How could he think about his hair at a time like this? There were so many things he didn't understand. And he was over 1,000 years old. He didn't understand feelings, or what he was feeling or what he was suppose to be feeling. When he searched inside himself he felt nothing. It scared him. Scared. That was a feeling, right?

This regeneration was so different than the others. He didn't know where to start. He truley felt cut off from the rest of the universe, that it had forgotten about him. Humans were entirley new to him again, he'd forgotten about their simple ways and their certain rituals. He had to learn eveything all over again. That was the curse. He knew his responsibility and his purpose, that was about it. Save the Universe, Save the Humans. He was fond of the human race, suceeding where his race hadn't. Their ability to hope, feel. He'd trade anything for the emptyiness. He longed for the connection he had once had with his human companions but he simply didn't feel it anymore. He had nothing to go on, being away from humans for so long. The longer he was with them would it come back? He had to try.

Mandy stood at the door. She thought he had been about to tell her what was wrong. The opportunity went out the window when she touched his shoulder, re-treating like he had been wounded,shutting himself off from her. He seemed to deny his hurt by darting to the bathroom before Mandy had a chance to react. "Doctor." Mandy called as the door opened.

He stepped out of the bathroom as she called his name. His gaze rose to meet hers for the first time all night.

She was instantly drawn to the expression in his dark brown eyes. They seemed to betray everything he felt. No longer were they cold. They were different this time, yet had the same effect. The dark pools seemed to go on an on into their intesity until it felt those eyes could burn through anything.

The blond girl was shocked at what she saw. Orbs expressing turmoil and a jumble of other emotions, begging her not to say a word. Pain, there was another familiar sting of it. He remembered that well. But he still felt empty.

He found himself thinking, Feeling empty meant he didn't have to feel. It meant no more hurt. Was that even fair?

The voice from earlier came again, _Don't beat yourself up over it. They can't hurt you if there's nothing left to feel._ The voice was probably right. He thought he could feel nothing but there was a part of him that did care and he blocked it out. There no way of getting rid of it completly no matter how he tried to shut it off.

His expression remained passive but something in his eyes...Suddenly it was like a light was going out in his eyes, it seemed to dim. And it scared the hell out of her. She was immediatly cut off before she could even say a word. "Please, don't." His voice was distant and flat. It tore at Mandy's heart. He turned away from her, eyes closing shut quickly. Mandy read his body language. Everything about it screamed vulnerability, his mask failing as she found his shoulders slumping.

Did he think she would take advantage of it? She had thought they had come to know each other well in the past week. Aparently not. "Please Doctor, just tell me."

"No." The Doctor said, his tone emotionless.

"Alright." Mandy said wearily. "Even though I don't know what's going on in that head of yours..know that I'm here."

He nodded, his back still turned. "Come on." He reached for her hand. "I have something to show you." He took her to his office, which was sperate from his lab, where he kept his TARDIS. "What ye think?" He asked as he stroked the frame.

"I always imagined that it wouldn't be this small."

"Eh, you haven't even seen the inside yet." He grabbed the chain on his belt, where the TARDIS key was hooked to. He unlocked the door. "Humans first, or in your case, lady."

"I can come?"She was shocked that he'd actually let her. He was probably getting tired of being Earth bound all the time. He had no reason to stay here except for the rips opening up in time. But there were other adventures out there waiting for them.

"If ye wan'"

"I might want to think it over actually...it's not a definate no or a yes either." Mandy felt quite nervous. She was going to be alone with the Doctor. She was so used to other people being around.

"Of course, yeah." He sniffed. He let her go on her way and waited for her in the TARDIS.

* * *

Early the next morning, after a good nights rest,she made her way to the blue box, the bluest blue she'd ever seen.

She placed her hand on the handle, looking up at the windows, as a thought came to mind._ Should I_ knock? She thought for another second._ No, probably not._ She pulled on the handle and...The door opened. It was as if it had been expecting her. She stepped inside, pretending not to be too excited. But she was practically bursting at the seams and it showed through. The Doctor seemed to revel in her exictment. At least he was ok now. "Do you like it?"

"It's...different. Still not how I pictured it."

"I did a little improving." He stepped away from the controls momentarily. "I must say I'm suprised. I mean it could be borin with me ramblin about borin' stories. And you young people hardly ever pay attention to the stories us older people have to tell. We really do have some interesting ones to get off our chest. But that's not important right now. In retrospect, we could have made much better choices during that whole time. Done things differently. What happened to that boy was very sad, very tragic – but things could have just ended with a few deaths, rather than just got even worse. If only we had just left things the way they were… But I digress. After a night of fun-filled activi'ies, you should see what the morning after is like." He started pressing levers and buttons and they were off. He took her into space.

"It's amazing. Just the size of it all. With all our human problems and drama, compared to this. We're just tiny."

"That's not even half of it." He opened the door wider, standing beside her. "Future empire of the human race." He extended his arm pointing out to the vast space, showing it off. As if saying, this will be all yours. "Or will be one day." He added. "Will take you about a couple thousand years..you been gettin slow on the uptake. Not you're fault you keep getting invaded by aliens who don't want you to expand with all your cleverness."

"That's really ours?" She looked at the Doctor who was in all his seriousness. She laughed. He shut the doors and he took the TARDIS back to where they had taken off.

"So now you know what's really out there, Amanda Clearwater...want to go on a real adventure?"

She looked at him, then back at the door, then to him again. "I'm going to head back. You know, don't want them to think I've run off." Turning toward the doors, she grinned, glancing over her shoulder and she said, "Still thinkin' about it." She'd make him think about it too. Her smile never left her face as she stepped out and neither did his.


	8. Call of the Wolf

**AN: Once again, not my best but the next two will. I'm just trying to find a filler. **

**Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, except form my characters. **

* * *

The Doctor was never good at weddings, especially his own. But he didn't count the wedding When it wasn't his own wedding, he was crashing them. Not on purpose of course. First it was Sarah-Janes. Ok, that one was on purpose. So was gate-crashing Harper's.

"Soldier, boy. Give me a hand here now." He called to the UNIT soldier.

Harper helped the Doctor hold the door closed, both their backs to it. "This is your plan!"' Harper shouted over the banging of the double doors and the barking and howling of the wolves trying to get through.

"You there, hold this." The Doctor said to one of the guests. A man who was just standing there. As the guest held the door, The Doctor took a flag pole and used it to bar the door. "That should hold them off." He turned to Mandy who had just walked up. "And you," He grabbed her by the arm. "You're coming with me. "But..."She had not time to protest as the Doctor dragged her along toward the TARDIS.

* * *

_August, 2034_

The sun shone through the certain's of Harper and Jess's bedroom. As Harper awoke he realised that Jess wasn't laying beside him. She usualy woke up after he did. He walked to the lounge, where she was sitting on the sofa, looking over her day planner. "What are you doing up?" He asked her.

"Going over the lists for the wedding." It had been eight months since Harper had propossed to Jess.

"I meant you're up before me." Harper said.

Sighing Jess closed the book and stood up. Before she could say anything Harper cut in, "Jess, we agreed now more wedding talk till the actaul wedding. We got it all settled already."

"I know but I want it to be perfect."

"It will be perfect."

"You sound so sure of it. You know my mum devorced my dad when I was ten."

"So, we'll have a small wedding. My family isn't perfect either." He put her arms around her waist. "To all the messed up families out there."

"Who's isn't?" She remarked, feeling slightly better, her nerves cooled.

"Who cares about them. We'll have our friends at UNIT."

"Thank you, under that tough exterior you're really sweet."

"But only towards you. I'm guessing that's why you want to mary me."

She turned back to the planner, "I figured, though we're having a small wedding, there there is still a lot to do.." "Everything's gonna go smoothly. It'll be just fine."

"When has anything gone smoothly for us? Remember what we do for a living?"

"Don't worry, what's the worst that could happen." Harper said encouragingly. Just then the sound of the TARDIS engines filled the room as the TARDIS materilaised into reality.

"Quite possibly that."Jess said.

The doors of the space/time machine opened and the Doctor stepped out, "Hello, guys. Hope I'm not interupting anything."

Jess plopped down onto the sofa, picking up a throw pillow, burring her face into it, so it would muffle her frustration.

The Doctor gave her a strange look. Then he went over to the Kitchen.

"What are you doing here?" Harper said in an aggitated whisper.

"Came by to give you a congradulations. I heard you're getting married." He turned to Harper. "Do you have anything to eat? You're human, you got to eat sometime, so do I."

"You didn't invite him to the wedding, did you." Jess gave her fiance a sideways glance.

"Of course I did." Harper said, starting to have a feeling he was going to regret it. "What are you doing here. Really?"

"It so happens to be my birthday." The Doctor closed the almost bare cupboard. "Well I say it is. 3 months, 27 days. "

"Why don't you two go do guy things." Jess suggested.

"Are you sure?" Harper asked, unsure.

"Yeah. There were some things I needed to catch up on. Seems like you do too."

On there way out the Doctor said, "Oh, ye mind if I leave her here?" He pointed to the TARDIS.

Jess smiled and shook her head. "No."

* * *

Anna Maitland was getting ready to finish planning the biggest wedding for any client in months. Tje estate the wedding was going to take place on Not being paid enough last several weddings and this one was loaded. She decided she deserved to endulge herself. She snuck down to the wine cellar. She could easily sell the vintage wine. Taking out one of the bottles she thought she heard howling. Perhaps a dog had wondered it's way down into the cellar.

It was just a small pup. She stuck out her hand to let it sniff her. "Come, on out. I'm not going to hurt you."

The pup frighently backed away. A low growl came from behind her. She turned around. What she saw wasn't a dog. The monsterous beast pounced, snapping at her throat.

Meanwhile across town John Martin was waiting at a bus stop. He heard the same low growling. Across the street between the alley he saw a big massive creature that looked like a wolf but it was bigger than an average wolf.

His gut instinct told him to run but he was no match.

* * *

"How did things go with Soldier boy yesterday. I heard he's not much of a joy to be around..." Mandy said. They were in the Doctor's lab, eating lunch. Well Mandy was. She wondered if the Doctor ever ate. What a ridiculious question. Of course he eats but I never really seen him.

"Pretty well." He anwsered.

"So, it was your birthday."'

"Could be."

"You told Harper you were 1,349." She wondered if that was the truth or if he was just saying things.

"Hmm. Maybe I did."

"There's been a murder." Mac announced, entering the room. "We got a new report that the Wolves might have escaped from the London Zoo. But unfortunatly this isn't the case. They're still safe and sound were they belong."

" Looks like some sort of animal attack though." The Doctor showed him, the research he was looking up on the lap top.

"Are you going to get involved with this now?" Mandy questioned desperatly. " It's Harper's wedding!"

"Ha, Soldier boy can wait."

* * *

The Estate was partically owned by UNIT. The mansion was at least two hundred years old.

Harper was nervous that everything wouldn't get done right. "Last time I hire a wedding planner. What did I tell her?"

"What's with you? Pre-wedding jitters?" Mady asked him.

"No, the wedding planner missing. I was supposed to meet her hear."

Downstaires someone screamed.

"I think someone found her." The Doctor said.

* * *

It had been Claudia that had screamed. "I came down here, to get some chaimpaign."

The Doctor had out his sonic screwdriver. "High magnetic field resignaion." In the far conrner the familiar shining ball of light shown, surrounded by shards of floating glass.

"Oh, no, no, no,no. This cannot be happening. This cannot happen. Not on my wedding day." Harper belted out frustratingly.

"It is happening, mate."

"Just get this sorted. Before anything worse happens."

There was a growling sound. The grey wolf was massive. It looked as if it was about to circle them. To it they were prey. The Doctor

The wolf did not like the way the Doctor held himself.

"Run for the door."

"What about you?" Mandy was already taking a step backwards.

"I'm right behind you. Run, now."

The wolf leapt at them.

They shut the door, all three of them pressing against it, holding it closed. While the Doctor was pointing his sonic at the brass door knob instead of the door. Usualy it would lock right away.

"That screwdriver of yours is becoming unreliable." Harper said. "How long does it take to lock a door with that?"

"It's wood. It takes a lot of focus." The Doctor tried to cinsintrate. Finally the "That should hold them for now. At least until the wedding."

"What were those things?" Claudia asked.

"Werewolves." The Doctor anwsered.

"Really? Actual werewolves?" Harper said unbelievably.

"More then 400 years ago, an alien enity, a virus, fell to Earth in Scotland in 1540. One cell of the virus survived, and latched on to various hosts. Eventually, in 1879, one bit Queen Victoria, but she didn't go through the transition it's been dorment in her family for generations and I think it's just woken up."

"So Werewolves are more of a mutation rather than supernatural."

"Either way, it's still a curse." "Am I making you nervous?"  
"Sort of, yeah."  
"Why?"  
"I'm getting married and you always brings trouble, or when it doesn't, you go looking for it."

"Isn't that the truth." Suprisingly this came from Claudia.

"Well that's handled." Mandy said. "We should be getting ready. The weddings in about two hours."

* * *

It was the same suit he had worn to Amy and Rory's wedding. Mandy had gotten it tailored. It hadn't quite fit him like it used to.

She leaved him to change in the library. When she came back he was having trouble with the cuff links. The bowtie hung sadly untied around his neck.

"I have it all sorted, except for these cuff links." He told her. "I never had to wear cuff links before." His expression on his face told her he was deep in thought or was trying hard not to think about something.

"Here." She walked over to him, grabbing his sleeve. "First you make sure this part sticks up and then it slides right in." She blinked as she made a mental thought. Wow that sounded wrong, she thought, then quickly flashed the Doctor a look that said, "That wasn't meant to sound dirty." But she already knew he was probably thinking it. The Doctor was many things and one of the was a dirty old man. Suprisingly he could get away with it because of his youthful visage.

She grabbed the other sleeve. The Doctor was fidgeting and looking nervously. "Quite wrigglin'." She scolded the Doctor.

"I dun like suits. They don't...suite me."

"You're wearing it for Harper's wedding." She finished with the cuff link and moved on the bowtie.

"Do you even know what you're doing?"

"I have six cousins, that are bouys. We have these family reunions every five years. They're always fancy dress. Most recently I had to do this when my Nan got remarried. It takes...practice." She finished tieing it, straightening it and smoothing it out.

"Bowtie." The Doctor muttered, hanging his head.

"Don't make such a fuss. You look attractive in anything." She paused, her eyes wide. Did she just say that out loud? When she lifted her head, slowly making eye contact with him, she found his intense eyes staring back at her, his face pulling back into a smile. She couldn't look at him any longer. "I'll...go...see if Jess...n...needs my help." She left the library and fled down the seemingly endless corridors, through the control room, down the ramp, and out the TARDIS doors.

* * *

She finally got back the nerve to go back to the TARDIS. Harper went along with her, but did not follow her.

Mandy found that the Doctor was still in the library, where she had left him. Music filled the air.

The song was "Good Luck Charm." The smooth voice of the artist was unmistakable.

"Elvis?" Mandy's gaze shifted around the room untili she found the source of the music coming from. There was a record player sitting on a desk. She hadn't seen it before because the surface had been littered with paper and various other junk.

"Yeah, why?" He asked. He liked Elvis. He was into the 'old fashioned" stuff. He even liked some old American Television. He used old English slang at times, getting them mixed up, that and currancy. He was never good with money. Peices of paper. Far more complicated than any other star systems way of payement.

Mandy shrugged at his remark. "That's it, you're officaly an old man. You're just like my grandfather. He'd listen to his old records and never let me here the end of it."

Being compared to a grandfather hurt him, (though he used to be one long ago.) but it also warmed his hearts. "Can you dance?" He asked her as he put on another record. The song he put on was "Let's Dance Together till Morning." by Paul Reeves.

Mandy didn't know the song or the singer. It was an old song, perhaps older than her grandfather?

"Dance?" She found herself unsure of his meaning. He must mean actual dancing. She didn't think he knew about that. "Can you?"

"Let's find out." He put out his hand and she hesitantly took it.

His feet moved gracefully with the music. 'ow am I doin'?" He asked.

"Well, you're not stepping on my feet yet." Mandy said, letting out a short laugh.

"I used to be rubbish at dancin'" He lifted her arm and spun her 'round.

"Really?" She asked. Right now she couldn't think of any imperfections he might have. It seemed a crime call that dimple that appeared when he smiled a flaw. Tthe muscles in your cheeks are supposed to connect but with dimples they don't fully connect. He only had one dimple on the right side of his face. The muscle there did not fully develop. Still she couldn't see how anyone could call that a 'birth defect' or a flaw. Though when he smiled, showing his teeth, his two front ones were slightly larger, which made Mandy think of a beaver. And with that puppy dog look he sometimes gave with thos golden brown eyes of his, made him look so innocent. How could he possibly have any flaws. He could do anything.

He spun her out again.

"Who ever thought, the Doctor, dancing in the library. Anything can happen."

"No. No nothing can happen."

"Is it even legal?"

"No. It's not right. It's sick."

"Oh, I'm that discusting to you?"

"No, I mean for a human you're gorgeous but it won't work."

"Yeah, thanks." Mandy saw Harper smiling brightly, from the doorway.

"Shut up, Charlie." She herself nearly laughed.

Calling Harper by his first name made him knock it off. He immediatley became serious. "No one call me that."

"You can dance too, if ye like." The Doctor ofered Harper.

Harper, still leaned against the door frame scoffed and crossed his arms. "I don't dance." He said putting empathis on the word dance.

"Looks like someones never danced before." Mandy teased.

"I did. Loads of times." The Captain confessed. "I'm not really up to it. It's my wedding day, which is in an hour."

"It can be an hour as long as you like." The Doctor said.

Was he inviting the soldier to come along, maybe he was.

Harper thought of Jess and the Doctor's track record of keeping time. Though the offer was tempting. "I better not take the risk. If I miss my own wedding, Jess'll kill me."

"Yeah. See what you mean. They can tend to be a bit fiesty."

"Female." Mandy said, clearing her throat. "In the room."

"I didn't mean female." The Doctor added honestly. "Still think you two are wrong for each other, I'd think you'd go for someone like her."

"Mandy? She's more like an annoying kid sister."

"Oi." Mandy called out.

"Good." The Doctor was glad soldier boy saw it that way. He didn't want complications repeating itself. If the Captain wanted to stay and Mandy traveling along too, he'd have to take extra precautions. "Boys, right corridor, girls on the left. No exceptions. Rule number 12, never get romantically involved with your companions or in your guys' case, co-workers."

* * *

Harper and the Doctor were stationed outside the cellar door.

"If it makes any movement, I'm going to shoot it." Harper got his rifle at the ready.  
"No. You're not. I know you're type, you go in, guns bazing. You use your gun more than your brain."  
They were interupted by someone clearing their throat. Behind them stood Claudia Brown, as eligant as ever. (To the Doctor of course.) "Don't all men?" She said with a certain hint of facetious. "What are you doing? You're not even dressed." She noted that Harper was still in his security uniform.

"I had to help take care of something."

"I'll take care of it. I got a plan." The Doctor stated. "It'll be like I'm not even here."

* * *

The Doctor found a window into the cellar.

He trapped the two werewolf pups under a wooden crate. Using the broken broom handle he pushed the crate back into the Time Fisher.

"There's always one more." The Doctor dived to grab the werewolf pup. He slid across the floor but missed it as it ran out the door.

* * *

The Priest was about to ask Harper and Jess to exchange their vows when suddenly,

"Soldier, boy. Give me a hand here now." He called to the UNIT soldier.

Harper helped the Doctor hold the door closed, both their backs to it. "This is your plan!"' Harper shouted over the banging of the double doors and the barking and howling of the wolves trying to get through.

"You there, hold this." The Doctor said to one of the guests. A man who was just standing there. As the guest held the door, The Doctor took a flag pole and used it to bar the door. "That should hold them off." He turned to Mandy who had just walked up. "And you," He grabbed her by the arm. "You're coming with me. "But..."She had not time to protest as the Doctor dragged her along toward the TARDIS.

"UNIT can handle the clean up."

"Oh, no you don't." Harper rushed after them. He entered, closing the door behind him. After what seemed like a few minutes the TARDIS dematerilized. Leaving Jess standing at the alter.

* * *

"Are you sure I can still come with you?" Mandy asked. The Doctor stopped by her house shortly, after he suggestion.

"Of course you can, you're my favorite human in the world."

"I don't believe that."

"Yeah, sorry, that was rubbish."

Mandy found herself thinking about what it would be like traveling with him. Even though he was an alien, albeit a weird one she enjoyed his company. She was brought out of her thoughts.

"Mandy."

"What?"

"You were thinkin mightly hard about somethin."

"Yeah, just wandering about the future. You'll have to fill me in on all the arrangments." She meant about where she would be sleeping and where she'd keep her clothes. Clothes. She almost forgotten. "How many clothes...?"

"Mandy, you're batherin' Take a breather will ye?"

Mandy drew in a deep breath and exhaled.

"There's plenty of clothes in the TARDIS wardrobe." He stated.

"Thanks for the ofer but judging by the way you dress, they're probably all tacky."

The Doctor gave her a deffensive look. Truth was she didn't want to wear other people's clothes, clothes that his other companions might have worn.

He opened the TARDIS door. "Humans first."

She stepped inside. She still wasn't used to the TARDIS even though she read about it.

"Anywhere in time and space." The Doctor said, as he entered behind her. He flipped a switch on the console and went to stand beside her. "Pick anywhere you'd like."

"Anywhere at all?"

"Or anywhen." He rocjed on the balls of his feet, hands behind his back. Behind his back he held a hat, he had taken off the hat stand beside the doors. "Whatever tickles your fancy." With a skip in his step he went over to another section of the console, putting his hat down. He pulled a leaver. He then took the hat and with one hand put it in.

"Seriously though?" She asked. He was really letting her choose? He moved the monitor towards her. The screen listing places and planets. "Anywhere?"

"Or anywhen."

She thought about starting out with somewhere familiar. "Well, in that case, I choose..." There was so many to choose from, anyone of the sounded good. She moved her finger around until it landed on something random. "When."

"Just remember I get to choose next time."

"You so wish." She turned to face him but he was already running around the console, pressing buttons.

"Hold on tight." He pulled another leaver. The center collum begin to move up and down, and the wonderful, impossible machine let out a whirring/wheezing sound, the most beautiful sound in the universe.

"Was there ever anyone?" Mandy found herself asking the Doctor. She had been wonderin In his long life had he had a family? Had their been someone he loved? A wife, children, grandchildren? Possibly he had been married at one point. Married life changes a person. One of her friends had been married outside of high school. It made you all serious and more wise toward others. But that could be the centuries he's lived, the things he's seen in his life times, all that he had loved. Did he have time for love? He seemed to puropsly not make time. Maybe the reason behind it was that he loved so many, only to have something horrible happen to them. He never talked about them. He never opened up. Little did she know this would be one of the rare ocasions he did. She never expected him to. He always acted all callous and serious all the time.

The Doctor pulled a lever, turning the breaks off. The whirring haulted. He'd give Mandy an answer but would not continue the convversation further. "She's not here. She's...no longer with us, as you humans say."

"I'm sorry. I had no idea." Was he talking about his wife?

The Doctor sighed and stared at the moving TARDIS collum. "Another time, yeah? I jus'...I don't really feel like talkin about it right now."

"Of course, sorry."

"Don't apologize." His answer was curt, to the point. She had no need to apologize for his pain. He probably deserved it. No, he did deserve it. He put his mask back up. He had many masks. A functional mask, he used to work. He used it to look like he was in charge while he really wasn't. His emotions were raging and eating at him. He'd try to turn them off but he couldn't completly. That wasn't who he was.

He wore another mask, one he used to please people. It made him feel temporarly better. He used it to make people see him how he wanted. If he pleased them they were kess likely to argue firing up his emotions. He shoved his feelings down and pushed them away. He was afraid to tell them what he was feeling. If he told them they would get too close. Then he would be angry for being afraid. The hatred and the fear of himself always returned. He was quick to anger. Anger can keep people away from you, protect you from feeling vaulnerable. Anger feels more powerful than hurt, fear or sadness and can be used to avoid those painful feelings. Angry people cover up their sensitivity.

He was more kind than he's ever been. The Doctor refused to show it. He was emotionally sensitive and vaulnerable. He was tired of feeling pain. So he wore his masks to protect himself. He tried to be horrible on purpose but she wouldn't leave.

He wore his happy mask sometimes, not often. That way nobody knew what he was really feeling. He'd act happy because he wanted them to be happy. Though he saw them happy, he didn't feel it. He didn't feel the warmth of acceptance and he really didn't know himself. Not that he wanted to. He had everything he need to know from past experiances. But they were someone else. They didn't feel like a part of him. Just borrowed memories. He didn't know who he was supposed to be. He didn't believe he had no feelings for his companions or River. Her death still affected him. It became evident when Mandy brought it up. He felt guilty yet...

Right now, his mask didn't seem to work. For the first time since it faltered, he had a hard time putting it back up.

Mandy saw his stone mask start to slip. It was a very sensative subject. She was getting through to him. She wouldn't drop the subject unless he told her again. "Who was she?" She asked.

The Doctor closed his eyes and didn't speak for a moment. Mandy feared she might've pushed it too far. It was clearly unsettling for hiim and he was plainly not in the mood. She kept quiet, waiting.

Finally he inhaled deeply, plastering a tight smile on his face. But still he didn't give her an answer. This was not her, smooth-talking, take everthing in his stride, Doctor. This was a man with painful memories and she wished more than anything that she had the power to erase them from him. The best she could do was make joyful new ones with him and keep his mind on the present.

"Doctor, I..."

The Doctor put up his palm. "Don't. Another time. Life's for the livin' yeah?" When he spoke the words sounded reasonable. He knew they were true. Then why did he feel dead inside? He felt numb, empty, he felt lost inside, dead. He felt like he was failing, failing to keep put the darkness but at time he didn't seem to care. He didn't know why he felt this way or if it was even normal. He wanted it to be so that he could have an excuse to why he felt so dark and empty. despite the turmoil of his feelings he burried. Thinking of it made him so helpless and pathetic. He didn't know why he feels so alone. Like the Universe isn't living for him and he isn't living for the Universe. He felt dead. _When you're dead, you're numb and empty._ A voice in his head reasoned, _"And when you feel dead you feel like you're not you anymore. What's so bad about that. It'll help eliminate the guilt. Nothing can hurt you if you're dead inside." _That was the dark part of him. Sometimes he wanted to give into it and let it take him over when he felt fed up. He wouldn't feel pain. It was tempting. His sanity, or what remained of is, pulled back. He couldn't think that way. He would have to go on, have to function. And yet would he be able to do any better protecting them than he did his old friends? He shut the though out of his mind. From now on, he decided there would have to be places in his mind that were closed off, sealed forever from his concious existance. It was either that or go crazy.

He looked at Mandy with tiredness, weakining evey fiber of his being, his mind numb, his grief pervading him. Mandy was looking at him and he saw something in her eyes that chilled his soul. Her eyes, the sparkling blue eyes that had attracted him to her had changed. The sparkle had been replaced by a strange intesity that seemed to glow deep within her.

_ I do this to them. Get their hopes up and destroy them._ He was so guilt ridden but now only for himself. He couldn't take it. He had to get out of there. He grabbed his hat, resting on the console, walking to the doors. He paused, running his fingers through his hair, making it stick out in all directions, with a quick flick he put on his hat and stepped outside. He hadn't wanted to leave Mandy alone. It would worry her that he left without explanation. She probably understood but he couldn't stay with her at this moment. He didn't want her to see him like this. The memories, (that didn't seem like his) he had tried so long to forget, resurfaced as his mind started to wonder. As he walked he could feel the aching in his chest beginning. He knew why he alway ran, kept changing companions and didn't look back. It wasn't out of shame it was because of the pain. He had to move on.

Even a moment alone, like this made him think. Alone with his thoughts, the memories were more vivid and the pain only increased. He loved taking long walks but he hated being alone. Because when he was alone he thought of those faces, he left behind, he left to die. Every single one of them taken away. This was how the universe thanked him? Every moment he spent alone he was facing his hell, seeing the faces of his friends and allies long since gone. Being alone brought the worst in him/ It always brought back the pain.

A single tear ran down his cheek. He looked up to see if it was raining. It wasn't. The last time he had cried for someone he loved was when he sent her away, to her death. A burning sensation quickly replaced his pain. It threatened to boil over. Anger. He was angry, for letting his show a sign of weakness. Angry at himself for being so...human, for ltetting himself feel remorse for them. _Why should I feel sad? They deserved what they got. They knew the risks. They knew..._

He kicked the dirt and and threw his hat. It hit a tree. His anger spent he sat down against the tree, grabbing his hat, clutching the brim. He didn't notice Mandy until she sat down next to him. "What are you doing here?"

"I followed you." Mandy said. In truth she had to see if he was ok. She'd seen him throw his little tantrum. He must be ok now, after letting out his frustration. What was he to be frustrated about?

"There was someone." He said. "She was the only one. I loved her more than anything. We didn't always meet in the right order. I can't helpp but keep thinking that she's out there, a younger version of her. Somewhere out there, there's a girl who will meet a man in a blue box who'll claim to know everything about her, more than she knows herself."

The human's eye were wide with confusion and fasination. He confessed his love for this woman he was speaking of but his tone did not express it.

"It's complicated." He explained. "Life of a time traveler for you."

Her expression relaxed. He patted her on the knee and then was silent for a few seconds. He then sighed, not being able to take the silence any longer. "Why am I telling you this?"

"I don't know." Mandy shrugged. "She turned her head toward him, "Because an old man always needs someone to tell his stories too."

"Do you have to rub it in?"

"I thought that's what you wanted to hear." She looked away from him, staring out at the field. "I don't forget you know."

"As long as you don't." He didn't finish his sentance. He closed his eyes and exhaled. He patter her leg again and it rested there until he stood up. He helped her up and together, hand in hand, starting thelong walk back to the TARDIS.

Suddenly the Doctor dropped her hand. "Race ye back." Without giving her a heads up, he started to run.

"Hey." She remained where she stood. Shaking her head. "And sometimes you're such a flippin' kid." She muttered to herself. She smiled a moment and took off after him to catch up. She wished she'd be running with him for a long while yet, but not forever.

* * *

AN: Yes, Claudia Brown is the same Claudia Brown from Primeval. The events of Primeval happen in an Alternate Universe, while WHO takes place in the WHOniverse, it's not directly in the Doctor Who Universe. Claudia Brown still exsists in this Universe so do Becker (Harper) and Abby (Mandy), Lester, etc, but as different people. :)

Interesting facts 101: The 12th Doctor is based on the 4th, 6th, and 7th Doctor's with a big mijority of 1. His fashion he gets from Pertwee Doctor. The Doctor (11) sort of reminded me of Dean Winchester (from Supernatural) They're characteristics were eerily similiar. The 12th Doctor is loosley based on Dean Winchester.


	9. The Rebel's Game

**Disclaimer: I do not own Doctor Who, only Mandy Clearwater and Captain Harper in this chapter. The story is based on a Doctor Who: Decide your Destiny novel. **

"Earth, 1974, lovely!" The Doctor stepped out of the TARDIS. Mandy behind him.

"Have you actually been to the 1970's?" She asked the Doctor.

"Yeah, actually. I lived through them. The 1980's were much be'er." He had enjoyed his sixth and seventh lives.

"We could go to a disco." Mandy siggested. "You can show off your moves."

The Doctor made a face. "No thanks. There's a reason disco's dead."

"What about shopping?"

"Anywhere in the Universe and ye...wanna go...shoppin'?" The Doctor said in disbelief.

"There's nothing wrong with a bit of shoppin' Besides we need to get some clothes to blend in."

"I told you I got some clothes in the..." He pointed behind him in the direction of the TARDIS.

"Tacky." Mandy reminded him. "Where are we anyway?'

They were in the middle of a clearing on a hill top, with several trees around them. The TARDIS doors suddenly opened, causing the Doctor and Mandy to automatically turn around.

"What are you doing here?" Mandy asked. "You're supposed to be om your honeymoon."

"I was waiting to say goodbye. I tried to find you but I got lost in there." He suddenly looked at his surroundings. "Wait, we actaully moved."

"Yeah and in time too." Mady said excitedly. "It takes a bit getting used to." Truth was she wasn't used to it yet. "It was a little bumpy. I'm sure I can get past that."

"A little bumpy?" Harper had been jumbled around like a rag doll. He had been barely able to stand on his feet when the TARDIS had been jerking about.

"The time vortex is like the ocean with a curiant constantly changing. It's not always going to be...not bumpy." The Doctor explained. It was never smooth either unless there were six pilots or River was flying it. "Right, now." He said to himself. "That's not the point. "You." He walked up to Harper, " stowed away in my TARDIS? My TARDIS?" His voice was slightly raised.

"You gave me an invitation."

"Oh, so I did." The Doctor said, his voice back to normal. "Welcome aboard Charlie."

"Uh...thanks." The Captain was lost for words. He never let anyone call him by his first name. He didn't mind if the Doctor did.

"I love that name, Charlie and George. I knew a George once, two, one got killed by a Cyberman." To Mandy it sounded like he was talking about his dog that had been run over by a car instead of talking about a human being. Was he that detached with humanity? Mandy had to ask herself.

"Do you mind if I call you Charlie?" The Doctor asked Harper. It was as if he was naming a pet.

She worried about him already. What made him loose his connection with humanity? Either that or he was just being selfish. He always seemed that way to her.

"No." Harper decided. "I don't mind." He ran his fingers through the back of his hair.

"Are you sure this is the 20th century?" Mandy asked. "You didn't set the co-ordinates wrong, did you?"

"This is Earth." The Doctor said positive. He avoided telling her he didn't know what century they were in, let alone year.

"But you don't know exactly, do you?" Mandy was relentless.

Harper, in the mean time was intent, waiting for an anwser.

The Doctor put up a finger to quiet her. "Do you hear that?" Of course they couldn't but he had to divert from having to anwser. "It sounds like running water. There must be a stream near by."

"I'm just saying Doctor, I hope you heven't landed us in pre-historic times, with all the dinosaurs."

"I don't think so." Harper said, nodding toward the bottom of the grassy slope. "There's a road down there. No dinosaur made that."

The Doctor decided not to point out that the Silurians could have built it, through they rarely used roads. Their origin wasn't far off from Mandy and Harpers. That would hardly mean that they were in pre-historic times. And this was the twentieth century. The air was warm with the freshness of rain, which placed them toward the end of spring. Sometimes he pittied that humans didn't have heightened senses he had and at the same time he envied them. Not that was the only reason.

He stepped bacl through the TARDIS door.

Mandy turned around to see him nip back in. "Doctor, just where do you think you're going? You haven't anwsered my question yet."

He leaned back out the door and gave her a bright smile. "Why, fishin, of course." The truth was he didn't want to tell her the time and place. He didn't like to admit to fault and he didn't want to tell them that their destinantion wasn't planned. There was something wrong with time that had brought the TARDIS here. Mandy had chosen their destination and he had set the cordinates. The TARDIS must have changed the course. He had notcied something wasn't right when they were in the time vortex. The normak wheezing of the engines had kept stalling. The vortex was like the Ocean, constantly giving ogg currents. It made time traveling through time and space a bit rough. But it had been rougher this time. A grumbling sound had vibrated through the TARDIS. The tricky part had been finding out what had disrupted the current and why it led them here. He had tried to stabalize the flight through the current and hit the re-materlization switch, The grinding of the TARDIS engines were drowned out by the roar of the vortex's current. They came to rest on a peaceful grassy slop on the fair hills of Earth. He had trouble landing at first. It was like the old gilr couldn't make up her mind. He acted nonchalantly and unconcerned, not wanting to be bothered with questions.

Now he was concerned with what the instruments showed. The disruption in the time vortex's current had been caused by a leakage of time energy, sweeping through the vortex. Call it a weakness in the fabric of time, that opens a gate way between the future and the past had been shifted to one side to the other. The cause of the shift could have been a primitive attempt at time travel. Humans were always tinkering with things they didn't understand or tried to and mad matters worse. People who had had managed to cross into the past, there was immediate or inevitable danger that could tamper with history. He knew of whole civilizations that had vanished because of ill tampering with time. If the walls between dimensions were weakening those tremours in the TARDIS could be catastrophic. That meant the disruption had caused a rift. If they went back to try and close it, it would destroy the Universe. Perhaps the rift was small enough for the TARDIS to fly through. They'd have a better chance. He didn't want to discuss it with his passengers for the moment. There was no need to interupt their fun now. He had to bluff. He wasn't going fishing. He was going to re-check the TARDIS instruments when he had found that the disruption had faded as soom as they had materialized. That suggested one or two possibilities. The TARDIS could somehow be connected with the slipage between times and someones inexperiance with a time vessel. If that were the case there had to be something in this area and he wanted to take a look. Figering out their location and time they were in had to be taken care of first. According to the TARDIS monitor they were in the 19th century America. "Only about a hundred years off."

"Talking to yourself now, are we?" Came a voice from behind him. It was Mandy who spoke.

"No." The Doctor turned around to see the two humans standing there. "I was talking to you." He had sensed their presence but he had been talking more to himself.

"Did you say a hundred years?" Harper asking f if he heard corerctly.

"1863." The Doctor said. "Somewhere in North America."

"So, we're lost." Mandy said walking further into the TARDIS, Harper behind her, with a serious face.

"What? Nonsense. I know percisely where we are." The Doctor checked the monitor again. "I set the cordinated to when and where you wanted." There was no trying to avoid it any long, he decided to tell them. "Something disrupted the course. I'm trying to figure out what brought us here."

"At least it's Earth." Harper stated.

"In the United States." The Doctor added. "Two centuries before your time." He said gently. "We were deflected by something passing us in the Time Vortex, something that created a strong current between two time lines."

"If I understand you correctly, Doctor." Harper began, "There could be other time travelers out there?"

"That's what I'm noping, Charlie. If not things are far more serious than that."

"How serious?" Mandy asked.

"The end of time and space."

Harper whistled softly. "I guess you can't get more serious than that."

There was a sudden comotion outside. They stepped into the woods in time to hear a chorus of shouts and call and a crahing movement through the brush to their left.

"Sounds like a heard of Elephants." Harper said.

"No, ny elephants. Horses. Lots of 'em." As the Doctor made his way through the underbrush toward the direction of the noise the thicket opened into a small valley where a broad stream ran under over hanging trees.

Horsemen, a dozen of them were urging their mounts down the slope through the stream. The riders were calvary men dressed in grey uniform. All of them young, most of them boys.

"Over here." One of the calvary men jeered. The shout came from near the other side of the river bank.

"Well, well. Lookee what we have here. What'd we catch here Ty?"

"Don't righly know sir." Ty answered. "I think it must be a fish 'cause we found it in the river." He pratcially sneered.

"Maybe the Lt. can figure it out when we get back to camp. Let's go." The band started back up the slope, their prisoner stumbling along beside one off the horses.

The Doctor took note of the travel warn clothing gtheir captive was wearing, would not be of fashion for at least eight centuries. There was only one explanation. He was the time traveler the Doctor had expected. He followed them up the hill, his companions behind him, staying undercover of the trees. At the top of the hill there were more calvary troops, first the Doctor would find out what's going on in steathy mode befoer he took action. Before he could get a closer look, the troops hoisted the older man onto one of the mounts, urged the horses into a jogging trot and vanished over the crest of the hill. By the time he reached the top, they were gone.

There was nothing to do but to follow them. They would not catcg them on foot of course but the Doctor had an idea. The Calvary men must have a camp near by. Though he wanted Mandy and Harper to stay in the TARDIS, he gave in after their protests. He certaintly didn't want them trampling around the 19th century unattented and besides he could use them as an advantage, plus he was starting to rather enjoy their company. But he wouldn't let them know that. They only thing he insisted on was that Mandy change her short skirt.

They found the camp at last when a voice called out, "Hault." from the shrubery ahead. They stopped in their tracks and were surrounded by three ragged, dirty men with beards. Without a doubt these were confederate soldiers. And each soldier carried a musket. The buisness end were pointed at the Doctor and his friends and a gesture by one indicated that they were to raise their hands.

"What you want around here?" One of the soldiers demanded.

"We're looking for a friend of ours."The Doctor said. "I don't suppose you've seen him, a rather short fellow with a white beard, and peculiar looking clothes?"

The soldier didn't answer, having noticed Mandy. "A woman." He managed to keep his musket barrel, while touching the brim of his hat. "Sorry, ma'am but I think y'all better tell us what you want her abouts."

"As I was saying, " The Doctor interjected, "We're trying to find a civilian, oddly dressed. Have you seen him?"

The soldier turned and spoke to his comrade nearest him. "We'd better take these folks to see the captian. "Ned, you stay here. We'll be nack in a bit."

The two soldiers took them up to their camp, a sprawling dirty clustering of ragged tents and men not far from were they were stopped. Harper nudged the Doctor as they walked among the tents, "Doctor are you sure you wnt to go in there?"

"That man was brought here, Charlie. I'm sure of it. If he's a time traveler we've got to find him before he changes history."

"But he's only one person." Mandy said. "What can one man do? There's a whole army here."

"You'd be suprised." The Doctor said. Just looke at him. He'd faught whole armies just by himself.

"Look, there he is." Mandy pointed out. The civilian prsioner was standing outside a much larger tent, what must be the headquarters. He was an older gentlemen maybe in his late fifties. He was dirtier than his captors and dripping wet Before him were several officers in confederate grey uniforms and the group was surrounded by armed men. This wasn't going to be easy bu tin an instant, being a clever genius that he was, the Doctor already had an idea.

"That's him alright." He said loud enough fr the group og oggicers and soldiers vould hear. The men looked up uneasily as the Doctor and his two companions approached.

"Who the devil is this private?" One of the officers asked. The Doctor assumed he was the Captian.

"Wondered into our picket line, sir." Their capture announced.

The Captian examined the three of them. "You people don't look like you're from around here." He said. "Are you with this gentlemen?"

The civlian with them looked more confussed than the Captian and grew more and more so whe the Doctor replied, "He certiantly is. I'm the Doctor and this is my assistant, Doctor Charles Harper, and my nurse Amanda Clearwater. This gentlemen is our patient. I'm afraid he got away from us, wondered off before we knew he was gone."

"Ah." The confederate Captian said, suddenly relieved. "That explains things. He was telling us a rather bizarre story."

"Did he tell you his name?"

"Uh..he claims to be a Doctor too. A Doctor Carl Jenner."

"Ah, yes. That's right. But the poor fellow, you know how it is."

Doctor Jenner was growing redder and angrier by the moment. "Just wait one minute." He bellowed. "I don't know you."

"That's ok, Carl." The Doctor said with a convincing smile. "I know you might not recognize us but we're your friends. We want to get you back to were you came from, understand? You'' have to help us"

Doctor Jenner's anger was replaced by understanding yet he was still somewhat confused. The other young man and young lady, he had seen before but they didn't seem to recognize him. The main point was if these people could help, he'd have to try yo understand. "Uh, yes, Doctor. I understand. I've been...sick. But I do recognize the young man and lady."

The Doctor turned to the Confederate Captain. "He's not dangerous."

"No. To others maybe. But he managed to blunder into a picket line in the middle of the night and nearly got his danged head shot off. He got away from us but was wondering around the edge of our encampment, stolen some food this morning , then he was spotted by a calvary detachment rode, out to bring him him. You understand, sir that we are in ememy country. Wherever General Lee's hopes for the possibility of a southern rebellion in Maryland we must be on guard against spies. General McClellan's forces are very near."

"Of course. I understand. But you must admit he really doesn't look the part of spy does he?"

The confederate Captain smiled and chuckled. "Nor do you sir. Nor do you." He escused himself for a moment and busily wrote something on a piece of paper then handed it to the Doctor. "Private." The Captain called to one of his men, "escort these gentlemen and lady back where you found them."

The private gave a salute, "Yes, sir, General, sir."

"General?" Mandy asked, falling in step with the Doctor.

The Doctor looked at the paper. It was a pass granting them freedom of movement through the area for the next twenty-four hours. It was sighned neatly at the bottom, "Daniel Harvey Hill." The Doctor read aloud. "Major General."

As they walked, Harper also fell in step on the other side of the Doctor. "What was that back there. Did you have to make me a Doctor?"

The Doctor gave him a look that said, yes, just go along with it.

The soldiers led them from the camp to the road where they'd been picked up and they watched as they trampled back down the road toward where they left the TARDIS.

Jenner kept repeating in a dazed voice, "D.H. Hill. That was D.H. Hill? That was really D.H. Hill?"

"That's right." The Doctor said. "But let's save it until we get back to the TARDIS."

"The what?"

"Never mind."

"We'll explain later." Mandy added. Actually she'd leave it to the Doctor to explain. She loved seeing him explain things that were simple to him.

When they reached the TARDIS, the sun was starting to set.

Carl Jenner marveled at the size within the police box. As they all did he remarked that it was bigger on the inside.

What truely is remarkable, the Doctor thought, is that humans have much difficaulty with the concept of transendental dimensions. "You're a bit out of place aren't you?" The Doctor said.

Jenner looked at him wearily.

"You came here from the future." The Doctor promted. "Would you like to tell me about it?"

"Yes, but how..." Jenner continued looking around the TARDIS.

"Let's just say we're fellow time travelers. I'd be interested in seeing your machine."

"Machine? What machine?"

"Your time machine."

"I didn't come here in a time machine. I do have one, but it's still in the ecperimental stage."

"You said you've seen me and Harper bedore." Mandy said.

The Doctor interupted. "If you didn't come here in a time machine, how did you get here?"

Jenner shook his head. "Listen, Doctor, either I'm crazy or I really did travel back in time, but not in a time machine."

"Well, you're not crazy. Take my word on that." The Doctor was the one that was crazy, at least he believed himself to be. His passengers could keep it in check now and then. Sometimes he felt that they were a weight on his shoulders, another weight of blood on his hands. Unknown to him, he was back where he started, when he dirst started out. He had the personality of his very early incarnations.

"How did you get here?" He asked Jenner.

Jenner sighed. "Do you know what year this is?"

"It's 1862." The Doctor said, re-reading the TARDIS monitor. "September the 9th to be exact.

"I happen to be something of an expert on this period." Jenner explained. "You see I'm a psychiatrist but in my spare time I'm a re-creationist."

"A what?"

"A re-creationist Doctor." Harper said. "There's these men, hobbists or history buffs that dress in Union or confederate uniforms and re-create the American Civil War. Sometimes they're called Civil War re-creationists."

"I know what a Civil War re-creationist is." The Doctor said a little frustrated.

"I belong to a group that re-creats the battles, as they were centuries ago, or as it were, nine centuries ago."

"That's where you came from, the 28th century?" Harper asked.

"2763." said Jenner.

"Blimey." Was Mandy's reponse. "You're a far way from home." She turned to the Doctor and said quietly, "People are still fasinated by the civil war in the 28th century?"

"People are always fasinated with war." The Docto's voice was void. He didn't like tje idea at all. He hated war, period. How could you be fasinated by something that took that many lives? He supposed it was to re-live the victory. That was one of the many flaws humans had. He didn't believe fighting violence with violence unless there was absolutly no choice.

"Anyway," Jenner continued, "We recreate battles and all that and it so happens that a fellow collegue of mine, Dr. Kruger was working at the hospital, had an unsual case. Seems the police had brought in a man who believed he was from 1863, that in fact was a confederate soldier. He called himself Everett Marshall. They found him at Devil's Den, a part of the Gettsyburg battlefield. He was lying in a ravine and rangers simply assumed he was a tourist who fell in and cracked his head. Doctor Kruger assumed the same or the perhaps he thought the man was from a re-creationst group that had been at in the park that day. But no one was reported missing and he had no identification on him. So Kruger sent him to me, thinking because I was familiar with the period and with re-creationalists I might have common ground with Marshall, that I might be able to break through his delusion. He stuck with the same consistant story. Time travel. That hasn't even been accoplished in my time yet."

"And it shouldn't be. When you get back, dismantle your time ship, you should have it destroyed.

"And I rightly argee with you Doctor." Jenner's response was immediate, it suprised the Doctor. He expected Jenner to protest, that he spent too much time on it. Well tough, only messing about in time should be the time lords job and him being the last one, he had all of time to himself and he would like to keep it that way. Because at least he knew what he was doing and time was in the right hands. "But first we must find Marshall. What exactly happened to him?"

"In our fourth session he said he had a feeling of dread, that he was being pulled back to his own time. He stressed the same feeling about his comrades in arms, how he left them behind. There was a lot of guilt over finding himself in the future, while all his buddies had been dead for centuiries." Jenner looked at that young man who appeared to be in his early thirties, but in those eyes he caught a glimpse of what he had seen in Marshall's a lot of guilt there, too much of it. It was much greater then Everett's fro Jenner to comprehend. It seemed to be overbearing on the Doctor but despite it all he stayed aware of the here and now for his young vibrant companions. "So there he was in my office and we were talking..."

"And fell into what looked like a hold opening up around him." The Doctor was only guessing.

"Yes, exactly. But how did you know?"

"Let's just say I know everything there is to know about time."

"You believe me then?"

"Yes, Doctor, I'm afraid I do."

"Why afraid?"

"Because what you described means very serious trouble. Call it a weakness in the fabric of time and space. Something caused a rift to open up." The Doctor quickly changed the subject. "Do you know where Everett Mashall could be?"

"I wish I did. We must've been seperated. I arrived about two days ago."

"We better get a move on then." The Doctor started toward the door. "Earth's time line.." He grabbed his jacket off the coat hanger "and countless, hundreds of worlds in the galaxy that intersects with the time lines of Earth hangs in the balance. Serious danger if an unexpected time traveler is loose." Before he put on his jacket he turned to face them. "The American Civil war is the most critical point in Earth's history, a time when the destiny of the entire planet was being shapped."

"I can't speak for other planets, Doctor." Jenner said, "But the United States of America was fighting for it's life during the Civil War and the U.S. certaintly played an important part in the world history in the century or so."

The Doctor was growing impatient. "What I'd like to know from you Doctor Jenner, is where Everett Marshall is most likely to be. If we know in advance we can find him and stop him before he causes any damage." There was anger in his voice.

"You think Mr. Marshall could try and change history?" Jenner asked.

The Doctor walked back towards them, jacket already on. "For what you've said about him, that sounds quite possible."

Jenner had a far away look in his eyes as he thought. "Yes, there was...oh dozen of minor incidents that could have affected the outcome of the war. The intervention of one single person could change everything."

Mandy stepped forward, "Doctor, is it really possible for one person to have that great of effect on history? I mean if someone like Queen Victoria or Abraham Lincoln weren't born, I can't see how history could change. Maybe some some details would be different but wouldn't the rest be pretty much the same way?"

Jenner answered instead, "The Civil War is one period in history that proved how important the individual was. There was no one...no one like Abraham Lincoln. If he had not issued the Emoucipation proclimation...well I'm sure the slaves would have been all freed eventually but it would not have been for some years. And it was he who held the union together and who was determined not to allow the Southern states to suceed. And there were men like Robert E. Lee who's genius kept the South going for three years. Indeed anGettysburg was the only time he was beaten in a single battle and even that was close. And his best General Stonewall Jackson, that man was a tactical genius, single handedly responsible for crushing union forces at Chancellorsville. If he had been alive when Lee fought Gettysburg...well the Civil War might've had a very different ending."

Like Mandy, the Doctor had a cold feeling in the pit of his stomach but for a very different reason. The Doctor had faced an endless parade of aliens and civilizations who had one time or another threatened Earth's time line, Daleks, cybermen, the Rutan, Sontarans, the weeping angels and countless other. Never had he faced a problem quite like this. A single human being who had shifted through time carrying the single greatest deadliest weapon a person could posses, a certain knowledge of the future. Everett Marshall was a walking time bomb. They had to find him before he could alter Earth's history. "Do you know where Everett Marshall is now?"

Jenner shook his head. "I don't know. He wasn't around when I came to."

"He probably landed in the same area but he migh have landed sometime before you. He could have arrived weeks, or even months ago. He could be anywhere by now."

"Then we don't have a chance to track him down." Charlie said. "We're sunk."

Doctor Jenner said, suddenly, "Wait a moment. If we want to find Everett...and he's out to change history like you said...hecould be right here in Frederick."

"Looking for Barbra Fnetchre?" The Doctor asked.

"No, looking for the three cigars."

The Doctor raised an eyebrow, then he spoke with enthusiasum like a child being told of a secret treasure map. "The three cigars?" He was a little rusty on American hisstory.

Jenner could provide the information they needed.

According to Jenner the three cigars were wrapped in General Lee's orders to his army that were lost sometime during rebel withdraw from Frederick, probably on a wednesday September 10th. General McCellan's troops found those orders when they entered the area on Saturday the 13th. Those three days, 10, 11, and 12th, they had to watch closely. If Marshall wanted to change history the course of the Antietam campaign he would have to find those orders before union soldiers did, sooner than that. That meant Marshall had to be somewhere nearby, the Doctor thought. If he was he would be with Lee's army searching those feilds east of Frederick tomorrow morning. They had two missions to make sure those wrapped orders were left for McClellan's troops to find and then locate Everett Marshall.

They slept an uneasy night in the TARDIS, waking up at the crack of dawn. They waited till nearly midday to start following the rebel columns moving through Frederick and then set out, on horse back.

It was the 10th, according to Jenner. The Doctor didn't really keep track of days. He never usually stayed on the slow path.

Frederick was a small town, in Doctor Jenner's time it was a dozen times bigger. Tthough it was smaller not worth a pin prick on a map, somethings were still the same.

"How are we supposed to find something as small as an envelope in all this mess?" Mandy said, making a face and placing her hands on her hips.

"Looks like they don't respect the local litter laws." Harper whispered in her ear, making her laugh. The Docto directed them a stern look.

Charlie got serious, clearing his throat. "I doubt they have them back here." He said. "Maybe we should start looking for this Marshall, Doctor?"

"I think we've done just that." Doctor Jenner was shielding his eyes against the sun, pacing along the boarder of the field on the distance was a lone man in uniform.

"You're sure that's him?" The Doctor asked.

Jenner nodded. "I think so. It looks like he's grown a beard but I'm sure that's Marshall."

"That's an officer's uniform, isn't is?" The Doctor said. "I thought you said he was a private."

"Yeah, but he's too far away to see what rank he is. Either he's been here longer than me or..."

"Or he got a new rank the easier way by hitting someone over the head." The Doctor said. "That's the way I'd do it. What should we do next?" He seemed to be talking more to himself than the others, for he answered his own question. "Going up to say hello would be the best thing, I suppose."

"Right." Harper interjected. "And then he runs us through with his bloddy sword."

"Everett Marshall wasn't the violent type." Jenner said. .

"Oh, but you're forgetting, Doctor Jenner. War and the brutality of loosing those close to you can turn even the gentlest of souls violent."

"He was a rather nice confused boy" Jenner added.

"This war is being faught by several very nice confused boys." The Doctor had his voice almost brought up to a shout."That's what makes is so dangerous."

Marshall's back was to them as they approached Doctor Jenner made his first move by calling out his name, "Everett. Everett Marshall."

The man froze were he stood, straightned up and turned to face them. He looked startled, then smiled, "Well, well if it isn't good ole Doctor Jenner." His deep south accent made his voice soft. "I thought I felt you falling through that hole with me." Then he looked at Mandy, Harper, and the Doctor. "But I don't know these folks. Especially the lady. Howdy ma'am."

"Everett these are um...my friends."

The Doctor stepped forward, "How about introductions later."

"You all come from...up then?"

"You might say so. How long have you been here Everett?"

"Oh maybe four or five months. Don't rightfully understand it but I cane down just outside Gettysburg, right were I took off from in the first place. Only thing was when I got there, there was no battle being faught yet. It was early may 1862, place was quiet as a cemetary."

The Doctor eyes Everett with a cold stare. Everett didn't notice.

"Took me more 'n five weeks to make my way back to Virginia and find the old army of the North Virginia again. They was down all the way fighting the battle of seven days but I guess you know about that."

The Doctor just nodded. "You've been promoted."

Marshall beamed. "Yep, seems I know somethings about the seven days fighting."

That brought a chill to the Doctor's hearts. "So you've been meddling with history then?"

"Meddling? What meddling? I just told old General Lee what would happen if we went and tried to change Malvern Hill."

"So what happened?"

"Oh he went and ordered the charge anyways. And it turned out just like I sai it would. Then I told him It'd be ok cause McClellan would get back on his boat in the James River and re-treat and it happened. I told General Lee I was a scout. Couldn't lead on that I've been to the future could I?" He gazed at Jenner with a narrow look. "They don't treat crazy folk as nicely as they do in your time, Doc. Anyway he comissioned me Lt. And now I'm Captain because I just knew where Pope would park his munitions. General Jackson was able to capture Pope's supplies just before seconf Manassas. General Lee don't like scouts but he's admitted that he's found me most useful. I had lots of time to read the history books about how this here war turns out." He looked across the field, toward Frederick and a distant colum of marching confederate soldiers. "We might just be avle to win the war, this time arround."

"Everett you can't go around changing histoy."

"Says who?"

"You'll change future."

"So, ain't my future up there, with all those lights and glass buildings and hovering vechicles poluting the air? Seems to me this might be my chance to set things right."

"You don't understand, Everett." The Doctor said. "By changing the outcome of the war you could probably alter the histories of billions of people on this planet alone. You chould change the history of the Universe, transform it into something unrecognizable. Marshall looked at the Doctor for a long moment, "Mister..."

"Doctor."

"Whatever your name is. You're the one that don't understand. I had a brother, Frank and he died at a place called Devil's Den. It weren't right that he died there where I for stuck in the future and lived. I'm goin to find him and fix it so he don't die. And if I can't fix it, I'll fix something to make sure he didn't die for nothing. You understand that? This is kin we're talking about, not some far off future I've never heard of or understand no how." There was a touch of fanatical light in Marshall's eyes, the faintest strain of hysteria edging around his voice. His little trip and the shock of seeing the future utterly beyond his comprhension must had left him on the very edge of sanity. There was no way they were going to reason with him.

"So what are you doing here?" The Doctor tried to keep his voice non-threatening.

Marshall's face took on a sly look and he winked at Doctor Jenner. "Well I know how he knows and he must've tole you. There's a little bit of paper, lying around here somewhere and I aim to find it."

"The three cigars." Jenner said and Marshall's grin grew broader.

"Listen, Everett. The Doctor said, trying to be persasive. "Why don't you come back to the TARDIS with us?" I don't think you understand what it is you're doing."

"You listen," Marshall shouted, a revolver suddenly was in his hand, pointing it at the Doctor.

Mandy jumped back a step, slightly moving behind Harper. As she peered out from behind him, she saw that the Doctor, gun still pointed at his chest, didn't even flinch.

"I got the key to the whole war, right here." Everett said. "And I ain't letting no Yankees cheat me out of it. This time around the South's goin to win."

"Now, Everett, wait." Jenner said but Marshall waved him into silence with the pistol. "You gentlemen are my prisoners and you too, beggin my pardon ma'am." He called out to the squadrant of soldiers. "Seargant, Seargant Cotter."

Someone clattered up behind them. The Doctor glanced over his shoulder and saw the seargant and four men trotting across the field.

The seargant saluted, "Yes, sir, Captain."

"I have reason to suspect that these are yankee spies. I'd be delighted if you locked them up in some safe place for the time being."

The seargant took a second glance at Mandy and her slacks. "And the lady too sir?"

"I'll take her to Mrs. Ramsey's house in town. She's sypathetic to our couse and will look after her for us."

And before they could protest, the were being led back into town. Mandy gave a desperate cry of, "Doctor." and then she was gone.

There were five soldiers for the three of them, each lugging a brownand black musket. They leaded them toward a shed at the edge of the field. The edge of a patch of woods was nearby. If they made a break for it they might Doctor didn't consider himself an expert on military matters, but he didn't doubt their shooting acuracy.

And then there was Mandy. If they didn't get away now what would happen to her? He did have the responsability of keeping her safe. He decided she'd be alright for now. He had to stop Marshall first before he re-shaped history.

As their captures crowded around, the Doctor suddenly feined a stumble, spun around. grabbing the nearest soldier's musket, pushing him back, shoving the barrel up toward the sky.

"Run." The Doctor called to Harper and Jenner. Two soldiers grabbed the Doctor from behind but the Doctor drove two fingers in the eyes of one, and spun around and guaged the eyes of the other. One soldier took a step toward Jenner and Charlie, bringing his musket up to take aim, but the Doctor tripped him. The musket dischared harmlessly into the air. Their captors were in hopless confusion. The Doctor knocked down another and sprinted toward the woods, zigzagging as he ran. The Doctor felt the snaps of bullets burning through the air above his head, a few hitting a tree, wood splintered. Flying peices of bark struck his face but it barely stung. He twisted abound the tree. If he had been taller, like in his last life, many of those bullets would have penetrated his skull.

There was another shot from behind him but he didn't hear it's passage. When he glanced across his shoulder, he could see no sign of pursuit but he saw Doctor Jenner and Charlie moving through the brush close by, panting, out of breath. They made it. He had taken a risk, surely a good handful of his lives dared not make, except perhaps his sixth, purposly putting people in danger.

* * *

Most of the fields of East Frederick were empty and deserted, though a few soldiers and horsemen still made their way toward town. Everett Marshall was still in those fields, pacing, searching patiently. The glimpse of franticim, the faint trace of madness must be driving him now.

He'd told them about losing his brother at Gettysburg and now he had a chance to change history, save his brother, and change the outcome of the war. The Doctor couldn't let him do that. But how to stop him? His precious conversastion with Everett Marshall had told him that reasoning with him would get him no where. Shooting him was unthinkable, even if he had a gun. What else was there? Take him by force to get him to the TARDIS? He was going to have to think of something quickly, something brilliant. Once again he had another idea. He had gotten better at coming up with plans, last time he would make it up as he went along mostly and wasn't good with coming up with plans.

The area close by was littered with paper, canvas and debris from an abandoned camp. The Doctor picked up a fairly large scrap of crumpled paper that had blown against a tree.

"Doctor Jenner" The Doctor said, "What do these three cigars look like wrapped up? How were the orders folded?"

Jenner puzzled, "I'm not really sure. The might have been folded into a kind of envelope."

The Doctor folded the paper so it resembled an envelope. "Like this?"

Jenner nodded.

Next the Doctor picked up a dry brittle stick. He snapped it in three. "So what Marshall is looking for might appear something like this?"

"I suppose so." Jenner said. "Why?"

The Doctor grinned in reply, then turned and shouted to Marshall across the field. "Everett Marshall. Is this what you're looking for?"

From fifty meters away Marshall could see the packet in his hand. He started toward them.

"Tell your men to stay where they are." The Doctor warned Everett. "I'd like to talk to you a moment."

Marshall stopped, hand gripping the hilt of his sword. His hand hesitated but he took it away. "What we got to talk about?"

"We could talk about me giving you this..but I'd like you to bring Mandy out, let her go first."

Marshall paused, considering and then turned and stlaked back toward the field to where his men waited. He returned, "You'll give me that if I return the lady?"

"What I'd like Mr. Marshall..."

"Captain Marshall, if you will, sir."

"I will not. You got to earn that title." The Doctor looked over at Charlie, who nodded in argreement. Charlie well earned that title.

"Let the lady go first, no funny buisness." Charlie remarked.

"What Charlie says." The Doctor nodded and gave Charlie a wink.

"What do want to talk about?" Marshall asked again.

" What I like to talk about is what you want to do with this."

"Nuthin to talk about, I can't let the yankees get hold of that." Marshall's voice dropped. "I got a promise to help Frankie." There would be no convincing him but the Doctor had to try.

"Then you're going to have to break that promise." He himself never broke a promise. Charlie knew it had to be very serious if the Doctor told someone to break a promise.

Two soldiers returned, Mandy was with them.

"Doctor." She ran up to him.

"Are you alright?" He found himself asking. He hadn't meant to.

"Certaintly, Doctor. I stayed with Mrs. Ramey in town. We had tea. Her sons woouldn't let me leave though." She beamed with a bright smile. "ooh, what happened." She noticed the small cuts on his face.

"oh, this. Nuthin to wiry about."

"We...fell under some artilary fire." Charlie said. He caught her eyes, widening. "Like the Doctor said, nothing to worry about."

"Now, Doctor" Marshall said, "About that paper..."

_ I could tell the truth. _The Doctor thought. _or try yo draw him out and stalling him to get him back to the TARDIS._ But they couldn't leave in the TARDIS right away. There was a rift in space and he needed to find the way to close it witout destroying the Universe. Right now they were stuck here.

The Doctor decided to stall him for more time. Unfortunatly Marshall was becoming suspitious.

"You're bluffin." He said suddenly. "You ain't got nuthin there." He gave a sharp signal to the men behind him, then strode forward.

The Doctor was conscious of the muskets being leveled at them, of the soft click of hamers being cocked. The Doctor wouldn't stand for this. His eleventh life probably would, or any other, but he couldn't, he wouldn't just stand there. With half blinded fury, he stepped toward Marshall. He was shorter than the Doctor by half a head and seemed lighter. The Doctor's reach was longer than Marshall. He had longer arms. He lunged at Marshall, grabbing him. The Doctor's attack sent Marshall back and step and knocked him off his feet. He fumbled for his pistol but the Doctor wrenched it out of his hands. The soldiers stepped forward, leveling their guns. The Doctor pointed the gun at Marshall's head.

The Doctor despised violence but the alternative was to let Marshall shred Earth's timeline.

Mandy knew the Doctor didn't use violence but by the look of it, he was about to. He looked like he didn't know or was aware of what he was doing. There was no doubt that he was going to go through with it unless someone stopped him. Someone had to snap him out of it. The soldier's muskets were trained only on the Doctor now.

"Stop." She found her voice. "Doctor, please. Don't do it." Her pleas seemed usless. She tried again. "You're better than him."

Raising the gun at Marshall's head, the Doctor wasn't taking any chances. The Earth was threatened. He had to stop him. Someone called him to stop. He wasn't paying attention. Anger proved stronger than reasoning right now. Ten guns were trained on him. He felt like pulling the trigger, he was close to, when he heard it. The human girl called him out of it, breifly. That caught his attention. He looked at her but his eyes still held no apparent awarness in them that what he was doing was wrong. The gun he held was still pointed at Marshall.

He was better than Marshall? He highly doubted it. He kept the gun on Marshall.

"Doctor, please." The faint cry suddenly brought back some far of memory in him.

The gun now rested uncomfortably in his hand.

Sensing the Doctor's uncertaintly, Marshall rose slowly to his feet, dusting himself off. "Lower your weapons." Marshall said to his men.

"What? Are you sure, sir?" One of the soldiers said, eyeing the man, holding the Captain at gun point, he seemed insane and could pull the trigger at any moment.

A few soldiers still took aim.

"I said lower your weapons." Marshall repeated._ This man is not going to harm me. He hasn't got the stomach. _Marshall thought. But all of a sudden he felt quessy. He could change his mind in a heart beat. "Doctor, I don't think you understand. I got a promise to keep to myself and to my kin. I'm stoppin this here war. If there's anyway I can do to stop it. My kid brother died. I'm gonna see that he doesn't die this time around." He turned with great deliberation and started walking away. The gun in the Doctor's hand was centered on his back as Marshall walked up the hill.

Marshall's words had been feeding the Doctor's anger. Mandy could see that. What was going on in that head of his? Maybe he wasn't thinking. She had to do something but she couldn't this time.

Everett kept on walking and the Doctor found himself admiring the cold courage of a man who could do that. I could. I would do anything to save my family but I didn't. It would cost billions of lives, maybe even more. The gun dropped down by his side.

Cautiously, Charlie approached, crouching slightly, "Ok, I'm just, gonna..." He took the gun from the Doctor's hand. He was shocked the tatic worked. He had been trained in the military to use that techique on suicide shooters. Not that he was comparing the Doctor to that. He glanced at the gun in his hand, then he chucked it. The pistol landed in the underbrush.

Mandy closed her eyes tight and let out a deep sigh of relief.

"Doctor, he's getting away." Charlie pointed out.

"What did you want me to do? Shoot him?"

Charlie shifted his gaze away, "Well...no, actually." He looked over at Marshall hopefully. "I thought you could wing 'im."

"You've been watching too many adventure films." The Doctor said, "Come on, let's get back to the TARDIS."

"But what about Marshall?" Charlie protested. "What if he interfers with the battle more?"

"Doctor Jenner." The Doctor turned to the psyhcologist.

"I can't see what Everett could change from here." Jenner said. "The battle seemse to be unfolding like it should."

"But what could be the next point tin time Marshall could twist things in the south's favor?"

"It will be either Chancellorsville or Gettysburg."

* * *

Inside the TARDIS they planned their next move.

"We kept Marshall from retrieving those orders." The Doctor said. "That should keep history on track, at least for awhile.."

"So as long as McClellan gets those lost plans, the Battle of Antieam should turn out the way the history books say." Jenner said.

"We need to find what he might interfer with next, then find a way to get him back to the twenty-eighth century."

"Is that really necessary Doctor?" asked Charlie. It sounded a little to harsh of a punishment.

"The man was dreadfuly unhappy in my time." Jenner added. "To tell you the truth, I don't blame him."

"He was brought back to his own time for a reason." Mandy said. "Why can't he stay here?"

The Doctor shook his head. "If he's determined to change history, there are still ways he can do it by himself. Isn't that right?"

"Well...yes. But maybe he won't."

"I don't think we can afford to take that chance. So, as our resident expert on the American Civil War, what happens next?"

"The Battle of Antieam. Technically it was a draw. Assuming all goes well and McClellan finds those plans by Saturday. He'll send his whole army through Frederick, tracking down Lee. But McClellan threw away his chances. As a resault Lee was able to retreat, and his first invasion of the North would be over. President Lincoln will use the Confederate non-victory to issue his Emancipation Proclimation. That will turn the war into a crusade against slavery, at least so far as other countries see it, Britian and France stayed out of the war. Antietam was probably the last chance the Confederates had for recognition from any of the European nations."

"Then what?"

"Well, Lincoln will see McClellan's lack of drive and replace him. He was replaced by a incompetent commander named Burnside who lead the army to disaster in December, 1883."

"Could Marshall interfer there in anyway?"

Jenner shook his head, "I sure don't see how. No, the next real chance for something to change, one way or another won't be untill May, 1863."

"About eight months from now."

"Uh...right. Burnside got sacked and was replaced by General Joseph Hooker. He led the Union into disaster at a place in Virginia called Cancelllorsville."

"How could Marshall interfer there?"

"By saving the life of a the man who was probably the most able Confederate under Lee's command, Thomas, Stonewall Jakson. He was shot by his own men. He died a week later from infection."

"If Everett alters that somehow, if Jakson lives that could change the entire course of the war."

"And if Jackson had been with Lee in Gettysburg..."

"Ok." The Doctor interupted. "We'll talk about Gettysburg la'er. Right now we got to find Marshall."

* * *

"Horses again?" Mandy asked. "Why can't we take the TARDIS?"

"Because of the rift that was caused by the disruption in the vortex." The Doctor explained quickly, untieing the horses from the post where they had left them. They could take the TARDIS, but the storm probably hadn't called down yet.

"It could've been a time vessel." Jenner suggested.

"Hold on," Mandy said as something came to mind. "You saw us before."

"Ah, yes." Now that Jenner was more comfortable around these people he told them, "As I recall I think I saw you two outside my office before I ended up here."

"If you saw us in the future, and we can't use the TARDIS..." She was cut off as they reached the edge of the forest.

A fisher shown bright between two trees.

"Well, that's convenant." The Doctor said.

"If you think I'm going through one of those things again." Mandy stated.

"You haven' t, otherwise Doctor Jenner won't meet you two."

"He did meet us back here." Charlie said.

"And we didn't meet him in the future, he only said we say us."

"Enough of the chit chat, off ye go."

"Doctor," began Charlie, "We don't know what's on the otherside."

"Course we do." The Doctor assured them. "Twenty-eight century, safe and sound. Where was I? oh yeah, now take a deep breath, tuck in your elbows, and don't forget to force yourself to breath." He put his hands on the small of their backs, and gently pushed as they stepped through.

* * *

The Doctor and Jenner headed to Chancellorsville.

"You told your friend we couldn't take the TARDIS..." Jenner began.

"The storm must've cleared up for now."

Jenner shook his head, "It's going to be hard finding anyone out there, much less one man!"

"Not hard." The Doctor grinned. "Merely improbable. By focusing on the temporal energy that still clings to Marshall, we should have come quite close to a location."

"Quite close, Doctor?" Jenner asked, looking doubtfully at the darkining sky.

"Oh not far. No more than half a kilometer or so!"

Rifle fire sounded close by, answered immediatly by another round of fire from further away. The Doctor chose his direction and plunged into the woods. He had managed to get a fix on Marshall's location, earlier in the TARDIS. The problem was that the scanner had been registering dimensional discontinuity in Marshall's vicinity and couldn't pinpoint that weakness in the space/time fabric any closer than a hundred meters.

"Doctor." Jenner said. He had found a rifle that someone must have dropped. Nearby was a canvas bag with US stenciled on the side, and also a blue cap. "Eleventh Corps." Jenner said, holding up the hat. "They must have retreated here."

"You sure?" Before he could get an answer, the Doctor could hear a thrashing and rustling noise ahead followed by shouts and bellowed orders. They moved catiously in that direction until they came near what passed as a clearing.

Gathered there were several men, muskets at the ready. They were rebels, many were in civilian clothes.

"What the hell are you people doing here?"

The Doctor whirled to face a grizzled bearded confederate soldier, holding the muzzle of the musket only cetimeters from the Doctor.

"Why hello." The Doctor said in his best American accent. "I'm the Doctor. and this is Doctor Jenner. We seem to be lost." That was really the truth.

"I'd say you're more lost than that." The soldier said. "This is one hell of a place to be wonderin around in the dark."

"Well I was looking for someone actually. You wouldn't happen to know a man named Everett Marshall would you? About yay tall, dark hair, possibly has a beard, unless it's a younger version of himself."

The soldier looked at the Doctor as if questioning his sanity.

"Last time I heard he was a Captian on General Lee's personal staff." The Doctor continued.

"Nope." He finally answered the Doctor. "And this is hardly the place to find him either. General Lee ain't within miles of us. And they's a whole damned yankee army between here and there."

The Doctor felt a surge of doubt. So far away? But the readings in the TARDIS suggested...

"You better come with us fella. Maybe you two are lost like you said. But you could be spies and I ain't takin no chances. Now get along there, both ye."

The Doctor decided to go peacefully this time.

* * *

_America. Pennsylvania, 2789_

It took Mandy and Harper the best part of the day to navigate their way through the teaming streets of an unfamiliar city, let alone Country.

Harper had seens pictures in history books when he had to study American history in high school. He transfered to the Military when he was eighteen. He was thankful that he at least stayed in school long enough. Those history lessons would pay off.

But now it seemed useless. Some of the landmarks were the same but at the same time it was like being on an alien planet, though he'd never been.

The familiar monmuments, it felt to Harper as if those ancient buildings had somehow been plucked from where they had sat in the twentieth century and dropped here in this time and place on a different world. Knowing the Doctor, he knew it wasn't outlandish of an idea as it sounded.

Though America was sort of a different world to Harper.

Mandy, being the more streetwise person had led the way. She had been enchanted by the sheer magic of the place, unable to wipe the look of wide eyed wonder off her face.

They stuck close together as they made their way through the crowds, passing odd looking shops.

Neither of them really knew where to start in their search for Doctor Jenner.

Mandy pointed out one of the tall black boxes that seemed to peper the streets. A person stepped out of one just across the street. Harper watched with interest as the man has disappeared inside and a faint blue light emited from within the later voices had followed.

"Information terminals." Mandy said, realizing what they were. Harper was somewhat disappointed. At first he had thought they were some futuristic phone booths or a place to charge your robot. Except their weren't any robots or flying cars like he expected. In reality the city was just a city.

Harper turned to Mandy. She was smiling with a wide grin, and she dashed down the street toward another unocupied booth. Sighing he followed her.

Just as she was entering the box, he said, "Mandy don't you think we should..."

"Shh." She hushed him like the Doctor would. She'd been spending too much time with him. He was begining to rub off on her.

A holographic image flickered into being. It was a humanoid figure resembling a maniqine. It had no facial features. "Welcome. How may I be of assistance?" It said with a cool female voice.

"Er, we're trying to find someone." Mandy spoke to it.

"Please state the name of the person you wish to locate." The holigram replied in the same monotone but smooth voice.

"Jenner." Mandy continued, glancing over her shoulder at Harper who still stood outside the box. She gave him a cheeky grin as if to say, "This is the future."

_Yep. Defiantly she had been spending too much time with the Doctor. _Harper thought.

But he couldn't help himself, her smile was contagious.

"There are six matches of the name Jenner in the dictionary." The hologram stated after a moment. A list of names and adresses scrolled up before Mandy in glowing letters, hovering in the air.

"Look, there. A Docotr C. Jenner. That has to be him." Harper said.

"Well the Doctor bit does kind of give it away." Mandy replied before reaching out and pressing the name with an index finger. She was only giving him a hard time.

A map appeared showing them the location of Doctor Jenner's place of work and home.

Beneath the map, scrawled both adresses.

"This is Doctor Jenner's current registered adress." The disembodied voice announced. "The professor does not appear to be in residence. You could try reaching him at his place of buisness."

"Thank you." Mandy said, leaving the booth.

"Telling a hologram, thank you." Harper said, shaking his head.

"Well, I didn't know what else to say. It doesn't hurt to be polite you know."

Yeah but to a machine? He almost answered back but kept it to himself. They had no time for an argument. They had to get going. "It's only a half hour walk from here I think."

The two of them set out to find Doctor Jenner's office.

Now they stood on the threshold of a large modern looking building. The front was made of steel and glass and through the windows Harper could see a curved reception desk.

"It looks like a hotel." He said peering inside. "Are you sure we got the right place?"

They entered. The place strongly smelled of furnisher polish.

"Where's the receptionist?" He asked.

Mandy shrugged. "Probably one of those holographic whatcha-macall-it's?" She said strolling over to the desk. "Hello" She called. "Anyone there?" There was no reply. "Hello." She called again.

"Look, it's pretty obvious no one's here."

"Of course someone has to be here. It's a hospital." Unless it's an alien fake one.

"Maybe they got abducted." Harper answered as if he had read her mind.

"Oh ha ha." Mandy leaned over the desk and rung the bell. "I used to ring these all the time when I was a kid,drove my mum mad. I mananged to get out of my Doctor's apointments for a week." She rung it again.

Seconds later a woman came off the lift and rushed to the front desk. "Sorry, we're a little short handed today." She appologized.

"Could you tell us where Doctor Jenner's office is?" Mandy asked her.

"Top floor. 412."

Mandy took Harper's hand and they ran to the lift.

"But..he's in a meeting." The woman stood up, calling after them.

By the time they got to Jenner's office they saw the floor opening up, Jenner and Marshall being sucked in. Harper and Mandy held on tight to the door frame. But they didn't feel the pull. What was keeping them from being sucked in?

* * *

It was pitch black but the Doctor and Jenner could hear a large amount of soldiers moving in the dark.

"Captain." The rebel behind the Doctor called to a sword branishing officer. "I got me a couple of prisoners out on the picket line."

Just before the Captain could speak there was a clattering sound in the woods ahead.

"Halt." Someone yelled. And nervous rifles went up.

"Don't fire. Don't fire." Someone else was yelling unseen beyond the brush. "Is that Pender's North Carolinians?"

Jenner stepped beside the Doctor. "Pender." He said. "North Carolinans. These are the troops who accidently fire into Stonewall Jackson's party. If i'm right they're about to move into position."

"I think they already have." The Doctor said.

"Hello." The voice called again. "North Carolina?"

"Who want to know?" A soldier called.

"Captain Marshall, aide to General Lee. Hold your fire." Marshall's voice sounded from behind the trees.

The Doctor decided he should do something. All eyes were peering into the darkness, searching for the source of the voice. The Doctor's eyesight being twice stronger than a humans, was able to detect Marshall's movement in seconds. He launched himself into a run, plunging into the woods as the voice of his captor called behind him, "Halt, stop yanks!"

The Doctor colided with someone in the darkness, eyes brilliant in the reflected light from a lantern in front of him. It was Marshall.

Marshall's eyes widened, "you." He said through bared teeth.

Then the woods erupted in gun thudded into the bark of a tree and Marshall and the Doctor went tumbling to thee ground.

Another sound of firing nearby.

"Cease fire. Cease fire." Marshall shouted, trying to levere himself from underneath the Doctor. "You're firing at you own men!" The Doctor covered his mouth with his arm before he could give another warning.

Close behind the Doctor there was another shout, "It's a lie. They're yankees. Pour it on 'em boys."

There were more shots fired. But then there was silence, broken only by the sound of men running in the dark.

When the Doctor released Marshall, Marshall knelt down, shaking with tears.

The Doctor looked at him confused for a seconf as if he didn't understand the emotion.

What he was thinking was, now was his chance.

There were a number of confederate soldiers out beside the dirt road. One of the officers was sprawled beside it. His head in the lap of another office.

"Oh my God, no." Marshall sobbed and the Doctor laid his hand on his shoulder.

Jenner was close behind them, eyes wide with disbelief.

"Is that General Jackson?" The Doctor asked.

Jenner solemly nodded. Other soldiers gathered around the Jackson.

"I could have saved him." Marshall said. "I could have saved him."

"Everett." The Doctor said, his hand still on his shoulder. "You can't try to re-wrtie history."

Marshall turned his eyes on the Doctor, eyes blazing "You're trying to stop me. I won't let you."

"I have to Everett."

He turned tortured eyes on the Doctor, "Doctor, I appreciate what you're sayin, I really do. But you don't understand."

"You're trying to re-shape the world, the whole universe."

"I don't care about the world." He said fiercly. "My brother...my brother Frankie..."

"Everett, your brother is dead. What's dead should stay dead."

"But he's not dead. I can go back and save him...warn him...He's with General Lee's first division. I talked to him not more 'n forty-eight hours ago."

"You're brother's death is no more fixed than the death of tha' man lyin there, but the structure of the universe is. You want to single handedly alter the fate of billions of people, of whole worlds and galaxies. No man had that right."

"To hell with other worlds. This is kin I'm talkin about. Wouldn't you do it? Wouldn't you tare the Universe apart just to keep your family same?"

"You know I would. But I can't. Billions of people would die. That's why I got to stop you. You can't save your brother and the outcome of this war."

"Well." Marshall said standing. "Guess I'll do what you can't. If there's anyway I can keep him from fallin at Gettsyburg, I'm gonna do it. And I won't let you or Doctor Jenner here, or the whole damned yankee army stop me." He strode off into the darkness.

The Doctor was able to follow him, following the snapping branches and thrashing leaves. "Marshall" The Doctor yelled. He came up to him unexpectedly in the dim light of a distant lantern.  
"Stand back." The warning was more of a snarl. Marshall's pistol was out.

"Everett."

He brought the gun in line with the Doctor's head. Marshall's body tensed as he pulled the trigger.

* * *

Mandy and Harper went to Jenner's home.

They came across a ship in the far corner of the workshop they had entered.

"This must be Jenner's time machine." Mandy approached it.

"Yeah, but it's in the experimental stage." Harper remided her.

"It's our best chance to get back to the Doctor."

They went inside.

"It's much samller than the TARDIS." Harper said, hunched over up against the bulkhead to avoid banging his head on the curved roof.

"We have to work out how to pilot this thing." Mandy said.

Harper was too busy looking around. When he turned his focus to Mandy, she was looking down at something in her hand.

Seconds later she started pressing buttons on the console. Red lights winked throughout the ship. Harper peered along the spine of the shop. It was pretty much an empty shell filled with nothing but wires trailing from the console.

The ship started to move.

"How did you do that?" Harper asked.

Mandy held up a small palm sized book. "Instruction manual." She said.

"Why would a experimental time ship need a instructions manual?"

"You need to start somewhere."

Suddenly the vessel began to vibrate, shaking violently. Harper grabbed a loop of overhanging cable.

"Whoa.." Mandy called, holding onto the console until the end of her cry was lost in the midst of an almighty clap as the vessel ripped a punture in the fabric of time and space, and slammed itself into the swirling vortex.

They crashed.

* * *

The Doctor twusted to the right as Marshall's pistol spat fire. The ball passed harmlessly far to his left. Before he could recover he was gone.

He heard Jenner coming up from behind him. "Are you ok?"

"I don't believe he meant to shoot me." The Doctor said. "He was just warning me off." He remembered the anguish and grief in Marshall's face as the pistol discharged.

"Are you going after him?" Jenner asked. "He could still do incalculable damage."

"I know." The Doctor said, stung by his failure. "but a fight out here in the dark could start another round of firin. Let's get back to the others. Besides nuthin we say or do now will bring him back." He looked at a receding light where stretcher-bearers were carrying General Jackson into the darkness.

* * *

Everything was black.

Harper shook his head to clear the grogginess and tried to open his eyes. After a moment he realized they were actually open. He was lying in a darkened room. He stirred, feeling the press of cold metal against his cheek. His left arm was trapped under something heavy. He gave it a tug and the thing gave a familiar sigh. Harper blinked trying to fully come around. Where had he heard that sound before? That sounded like...Mandy.

He dragged himself up into a sitting position and immediatly wished he hadn't. The world swam in front of him, his head pounding. His memories suddenly came back to him as his mind came back into focus. America, the Civil War, Doctor Jenner, the time machine. He ran his fingers through his hair. Well at least they were alive. He heard Mandy give out a low groan. He reached his hand out to her and touched something soft.

"Oi, get your hands off."

His eyes widened when he realized where his hand was. "Sorry." So she was alright then. But he still had to ask. "Are you ok?"

"I will be when you move your legs." She replied.

"Sorry." He said, extracting himself and feeling around in the darkness for something to hold onto.

"I was grateful for the soft landing." She said.

Harper rubbed his head. He must've struck it as he'd fallen. "Have we stopped moving?' He asked.

"A couple minutes ago." Mandy said. "I tried waking you."

So that's why his right side cheek stung. Grabbing hold of a bunch of loose cables, Harper hauled himself up. "Can you switch on the lights?"

Mandy took out her mobile, using the light to see. "No. Half the control panel's missing."

"Missing as in we lost part of the ship when we landed?"

"I don't thing it lands. Maybe just appears."

"Just like the TARDIS." Harper added. They snaked their way back through the belly of the ship, withing a few minutes they reached the emergency hatch. The ship had somehow barried itself in the ground. Perhaps materialized there.

"Well, it looke like the nineteenth century." Harper said, peering out. He could see they were in the back grden of a victorian house.

"It looks like the twenty-eighth too." Mandy said. "I don't suppose these back streets change that much. We need to ask somebody."

"Asking someone might be difficault. What with the way we're dressed." It had gotten them in a spot of trouble already.

"That's what I like about you Captain Harper, ever the optimist."

Harper didn't let her see him smile. He grabbed the hatc way and heaved himself out. Mandy clambered out of the ship, standing beside Harper, her feet sinking into the soft ground of a flower bed. She could hear voices coming from the neighboring yard and candle light shown in the window further along the street. "Eh, I think our arrival might have drawn some attention." Harper said.

A woman came out of one of the houses, scowling. Mandy waved at her nervously. "Hello, Mrs. Ramsey."'

A few minutes later Mandy tracked down a newspaper. She read the date. "The Seventh of September, 1863. We're three days early."

"Three days off, good." Harper said. "After all, we could've been off by years."

"Yeah, you're right. Three days isn't going to kill us." Mandy agreed.

"Uh...you said hello to Mrs. Ramsey three days before you met her."

"So?"

"So it could cause a disruption in the space time continuim. Ever since I met the Doctor I've been looking this stuff up."

"Good for you, you did your homework." Mandy said sarcastically. She hardly expected him to be the type to pick up a book, yet alone read. "It couldn't've done that much damage. I remember it now. Mrs. Ramsey said she saw me before, like Doctor Jenner did."

"Alright then." Harper said, deafeted. "Well have to find somewhere to stay and waut for the Doctor. From then on he can handle you."

Mandy smacked him on the arm but it was more playful.

They stayed in Mrs. Ramsey's barn. Her sons brought them food and talked with them. Harper was acting like the jealous boyfriend but Mandy was oblivious.

The soldier in Harper reasoned that he could not have feelings for her. Besides relationships and life with the Doctor did not mix. It gave the enemies leverage.

* * *

The Doctor and Jenner made their way back to the TARDIS, traveling back to eight months ago to September 10th. The day the Doctor and his asistances arrived.

When the Doctor stepped out, he slightly jumped.

"What is it?" Jenner called out, fearing he had been shot but he hadn't heard any gin fire.

The Doctor reached in his pocket. "I got a signal on this." He took out his sonic screwdriver.

"A sonic probe!" Jenner said with astonishment. "You young man are full of endless surpises."

"It's a screwdriver and it's sonic." He checked the readings. "And there's one thing you should know about me, Doctor Jenner, is that I'm hardly young." He pointed the screwdriver striaght ahead, waving it around like a torch. "It's coming from this way." It was coming from Frederick.

* * *

The third say September the 10th, they waited for the Doctor to come storming in, out of the misty morning, both imagining him, scolding them like they were children. But neither came. The Doctor had to be somewhere.

They decided on going back to the scene of the crash.

"That's the most likely place he would go." Mandy said. "Or he could come here. Maybe we should wait here till he shows up?"

"Wait, the Doctor said something disrupted the time vortex." Harper said. "What if it was us?"

The doors to the barn swung open and there stood the Doctor. "You're absolutely right."

"Sorry?" Harper turned his head. The Doctor hardly admitted that someone was right.

"You would be the ones to unwittingly to create a parodox." They weren't the only ones to create one. But unknowingly...He searched the room. The Doctor met Mandy's gaze, a playful smile on his face. He had a feeling it was her idea.

Mandy's face split into the wildests frin and she ran to hime, wrapping her arms around him and squeezing him tight.

The Doctor did not return the gesture of affection. He looked rather uncomfortable, just standing there, allowing himself to be squeezed.

_Why is she hugging me? _The Doctor wondered. _I haven't done anything yet. _

A moment later she realeased him. She looked anywhere else but at him. "Too soon?" She asked him.

He just cleared his throat.

Mandy took a step back and folded her arms. "Three days. Three days we had to hang around waiting for you to show up. Do you know how desperatly I need a shower?"

The Doctor glanced from Mandy to Charlie and then back at Mandy again. He gave her an apologetic look that quickly turned into an agitated one. "I letf you safetly in the twenty-eighth century."

"Well you did leave us in the twenty-eighth century." Harper said. "We went to find Doctor Jenner but he and Marshal were already gone. So we used Jenner's time ship."

"It must've been a bit exciting." The Doctor said. It was hard to tell if he was being sarcastic or not. "The first humans, traveling in an experimental time ship, breaking new ground. You know how they sent the first monkey into space, like tha' youu probably were the first apes to time travel. Exciting but profoundly dangerous."

Neither Mandy nor Jenner could decipher if that was an insault or a compliment. Harper took it as an insault. But the Doctor hiimself couldn't tell what he meant it as, maybe it was a compliment.

Harper stood up relativly fast. "Who are you to call us apes?" His fist was clenched.

"Looks like someone can't take a complilment when they hear it." The Doctor said.

"Gentlemen now is hardly the time." said Jenner. He was no longer worried about Marshall's state of min at this moment. He was concerned about the Doctor's. It seemed he had some form of emotional detachment cause bu some aparent psychological trauma.

"Yes, Marshall." The Doctor said, "But first." He patted Mandy on the shoulder and pocked her as if checking she was real. She slapped his hand away. "So how was it?"

She sighed. "Fine good. Right up until the crash landing."

"Ah, yes. I saw that...hmm." He paused to thing for a second. "Good. Now we can get on stopping Marshall." They started walking back to the TARDIS.

"This might be a back time..." Harper said to the Doctor, warning him that he wasn't trying to make him angry. "the source of the disruption..."

"I picked up a signal on my sonic screwdriver." The Doctor said. "Thr rift opened three days ago."

"Then it was us." Harper said in a apologetic tone.

The Doctor stared at him blankely. He had no reason to aplogixe. He was only human. "It caused a weak point, that dragged Doctor Jenner and Marshall here."

"But that happened before we used the time machine." Mandy said a bit confused.

"It's all wibbly-wobbly timey-stuff."

"What?"

"Never mind." The Doctor waved it away to avoid explaining.

"Hang on a minute." said Harper, raising a hand to ensure everyone was listening. "How can it have been us? We only came back in time to look for you after the hole closed in Jenner's office. We used the time machine after that. How could we have caused the rift and the hole ing his offive that brought Jenner and Marshall here? They were here before we went into the future."

"Yes." said the Doctor. "But..."

"Hold on." Harper interupted. "Let me get this straight. What you're discribing is an impossibility. Logically it can't have been us that caused Jenner and Marshall to fall through a weak point in time. That rift was what brought us here. Therefor it already existed. Simple cause and effect."

The Doctor shook his head. "No, Charlie. It doesn't work like that. Never apply logic. Let me explain it this wat. History is like..." He waved his fingers together and wiggled them around in Harper's face, searching for the right words. "No, scratch that. Everythin's conected by a thread pull a loose one and it begins to unravel." Events in the future impact the events of the past." He glanced at Mandy and then turned his attention back to Harper again. Jenner stood watching him, a fasinated expression on his face. "Humans." The Doctor continued. "experiance the world in such a linear fashion. You live, you grow old, you die. But the universe is vaster and much older and more complex. History is not linear just because it seems that way. It constantly changes. It shifts. History is more than experiance and it's not fragile as you think. There are fixed points in time, yes." He stopped for a second like he lost his train of thought. Then he continued once he had it again. "Things that have to happen always have to happen and will happen. Those events can't be changed. Everything else...it flexes Charlie. It bends."

Charlie frowned. "So, just so I'm clear, the world is suddenly about to unravel because everthing else stopped making sense?"

"No. Reality isn't about to unravel. At least I don't thinks so. For now, assuming we can find a way to stop Marshall."

"So what's next?" Mandy asked him. "I assume you have a plane."

The Doctor smiled. "Of course I have a plane. I'm the Doctor. I always have a plan."

"That's what I'm worried about." She muttered.

"To the TARDIS." The Doctor proclaimed.

They all gathered around the control room.

"The blance of history is still intact." The Doctor said. "For now."

"You already said that." Harper said.

The Doctor ignored him. "Could Marshall still affect the outcome of history at this point?" He asked Jenner.

Jenner considered, then shook his head. "Lee will encircle the Union Army here. He'll be outnumbered but the fight will have knocked out of fightinh Jor Hooker bu the time. Hooker will withdraw and the cmapaign will be over. Hooker will be relieved and replaced. I don't see how Marshall could change any of that."

"And the next comapaign's at Gettysburg."

"I suppose Marshall could try to talk to General Lee out of invading the North." Jenner said. "He doesn't want his brother to die at Devil's Den. It's likely though that he'd try to change the battle himself."

"Why?"

"Because at Gettysburg the South came very, very close. If Everett still has the favor og General Lee, he might be able to win the South's great victory and the end of the war."

"Ok." The Doctor said, walking up to the console. "We have an appointement with Mr. Marshall." He started pressing buttons, running round the console.

"I thought you said we can't." Mandy said. The Doctor would never take the risk. It was like he was a different person, like he wasn't the Doctor at all.

The Doctor pressed more buttons and then there was a tremendous rattle, knocking them all to their feet.

"Are you crazy?" Harper shouted, getting to his knees.

"Quite possible." The Doctor said, about to use the console to pull himself up. "Depends on who ye ask."

"Doctor, get away from the controls." Harper tried tackling him but the Doctor had already pulled the lever. They were dematerializing.

The Doctor faught the shuddering vibrations, the gut wrenching lurch of the TARDIS, coaxing her, urging her, guiding her though the storm. "We're about to materialize." He shouted about the noise, not that his warning could have prepared any of his passengers for whatever was to happen. The wrenching, lurching movements of the TARDIS were completly beyond his control but he wanted everyone on board to know something was about to happen even if he didn't know what.

With a grind and a shutter the TARDIS materialized or tried to. The view screen showed a piculiar sight, a jumbled pile of massive boulders set against a landscape of a grey-blue sky and pilliars of smoke.

"That's Devil's Den." Jenner pointed out.

The screen shifted and flickered.

The TARDIS began to make the whirring noise again.

The Doctor turned, paused for a second, then ran to the controls. "No, no, no."

"You didn't press anything did you?" asked Harper.

"No. I didn't press anything." The Doctor said, checking the controls. "It wasn't me."

The TARDIS was trying to land in a narrown slot between two boulders but something was already there, preventing full materialization.

The storm in the vortex seemed to have cleared. This time they materialized without a tremor.

If the TARDIS sensed a problem she would shift to a next location she seemed fit.

"What happened?" Mandy asked.

"The TARDIS wasn't fully materialized. We were still halfway in the time vortex. Something was preventing her to land so she shifted."

"Shifted?"

"Moved in location." He said. "Pay attention, Amanda."

She scowled at him, rolling her eyes.

He continued, "The TARDIS brought us to the next location she could." They stepped out of the TARDIS. It had landed inside a shed. They all peered out.

"What do we do now?" Mandy asked.

"You and Charlie stay here." The Doctor said.

"I will not be cooped up in there while you go traipsing off God knows where again." She said, crossing her arms.

The Doctor sighed. "Amanda Clearwater, you are the most exasperating human being I've even known. Kindly leave the woman's lib in the 21st century not in the battlefields of the 19th. Charlie, you stay with her." The Doctor saw mutiny in his eyes. The two did what they were told and went back inside the TARDIS.

Jenner peered back outside. "Seminary Ridge. Without question. This is Seminary Ridge."

"How can you be certain?" The Doctor asked.

"I know this town very well." Jenner said with a smile. "In my time most of the land around Gettysburg is sill a national park. It hasn't changed very much in a thousand years. Now look over there, on the horizon." Jenner pointed, "to the right of the town, that's Culp's Hill. Just this side of Culp's Hill and to the right is cemetery hill. Then further to the South is Little Round Top. It will be the anchor for the Union left flank but they'll have a tough fight for it first on July 2nd."

"I was aiming for July 1st." The Doctor said, "Late afternoon."

"Then I'd say we hit the mark right on the money." Henner said. "Just at the end of the Woodenr Ridge hust around the round top is Devil's Den."

Now that they were where they needed to be the Doctor wondered about the temperal disturbance they had encountered before materializing. A transdimentional whirlpool of that magnitude could mean real trouble in the space time continuim. It still bothered the Doctor evenn though the disturbance faded. "I think we can go out and take a look around." The Doctor said as they re-eneted the TARDIS.

"We as in, I count to." Mandy said, heading up the TARDIS staires. She appeared moments later with a pile of victorian clothing in hre hands. "I found these in the wardrobe room. No excuse to leave me behind now."

The Doctor wanted to leave Mandy and Charlie in the TARDIS but take Jenner along with him. But when Mandy gets that look in her eye, however, the Doctor know he'd be wasting time telling her to stay. "Ok, put it on and let's go."

Mandy grinned and retired back to the wardrobe room.

"But do exactly as I tell you." The Doctor called after her.

"The TARDIS had a wardrobe." Harper asked. He climbed the staires and followed after Mandy.

Jenner and the Doctor stood alone in the quiet console room.

"Are you alright Doctor?" Jenner broke the silence. He now had the opportunity to have full conversation with this man.

As Jenner and the Doctor spoke, Mandy listened in, waiting behind the wall next to the stairs, not wanting to interupt them.

"Why do you ask?" The Doctor asked Jenner.

"You seem...distant." He didn't want to say detached. "I'm a little concerned about your...state of mind."

"Why would you be concerned?" He didn't know him, hadn't known him long enough. None of them did.

"I may be a scientist but I am also a psycologist. Forgive me, for doing my job."

"Somethin...happened to me." The Doctor began. "I'd rather not talk about it."

"It helps to talk..."

"It'd rather not."

After a heartbeat Jenner said, "It must've been so terrible."

The Doctor stared down at the consol, playing with a lever. It was so terrible. He had lost his family, his wife, put through so much torture. There was blood on his hands, blood that he could never wash off. Anger, hate, and sadness was all he could feel anymore. Well the guilt and sadness was still there, but not as strongly. He burried that part of him real deep, hit it with his happiness and excitment. Nothing could excite him anymore. It was just a front, reviling in himself, he hated it, hated himself. But if he acted selfish,he'd push them away, prevent them from getting close, precent himself from getting hurt again. "If it helps, I don't rememer much of it." Bits and peices of it he did remember. Perhaps it was a blessing, a blessing he didn't deserve. It still tortured him at night. He barely slept. Only half an hour of not even a full hour. It was a wonder how he still haf his wits about him.

Sure he had problems with feelings. That was the least of his problems. He didn't know what to think of himself other than to hate. He didn't know who he was anymore ot what he'd do. He had pulled a gun on Marshall and had come close to pulling the trigger. Whoever that was, wasn't the Doctor. Mandy had barely been able to bring him back. His throat seemed to close and his hearts began to thud hard against his ribs. There was no mistaking what the feeling was...fear. He was afraid of himself. He put his hand over his eyes and rubber them. He had to be brave.

Harper returned, Mandy behind him. She would pass as a civilian. Harper was still wearing the same clothes. "Nothing in there fits my fancy." He said, coming down the stairs. "Who do I need to impress?"

"Could do without the Bonnet, thought." Mandy said, taking it off. The Doctor glanced at her, her eyes were filled with worry as she caught his gaze.

She felt so sad for him. When he looked away, she still kept her eyes on him.

Had he known that she had been listening? No he couldn't have, could he? She couldn't even begin to imagine how terrible it had been, his death. Centuries old, knowing nothing but pain, and death and tragedy.

"Right, let's get a move on, shake a leg." The Doctor suddenly ran to the TARDIS doors. "Time hangs in the balance and all that." They followed him out. "The TARDIS brought up directly to the point in time where history might be altered within the next few hours. That's what caused all the turbulance." He explained.

They stopped at the side of the road as Doctor Jenner excitedly pointed out to where a small group of officers that stood around a table that had been set up in front ot the tents. One of the men was Robert E. Lee. Then it seemed that they all saw him at the same moment.

Grinning at something Lee said, his hand resting lightly on the hilt of his sword was Everett Marshall, still serving as aid to General Lee.

"Doctor." Mandy said, moving over to stand by him. There was hesitation in her tone. "You said you had a plan."

The Doctor didn't answer. He just put up a finger and smiled. Clever, he thought. She remembered.

At that same moment Mandy thought, obviously he didn't have a plan at all. She supposed she was somewhat thankful. Because if the Doctor had a plan, he'd do anything to see it through.

They were close enough to hear what Marshall was saying. "I've been here before, General." He said, "and I think I can give you the advice of an eyewitness. That wooded hill over there is Culp's Hill. Below it, is where the yanks are regrouping but I don't think it's occupied yet..."

Listening to Marshall, the Doctor knew that the only way to handle this was to take offensive right from the start. "General Lee." The Doctor said, stepping forward. He stuck out his hand to shake Lee's. "Pleased to meet you."

Lee looked around, a puzzled frown creasing his face. Some of his soldiers jumped, suprised bu the fact that they had appeared so close to the General's headquarters without being stopped by distant soldiers.

"And who might you be?" Lee asked.

"I'm the Doctor, these are my associates, Captian Charlie Harper, Doctor Carl Jenner, and my assistant, Mandy Clearwater. Please forgive the interuption but we've been looking for Mr. Marshall."

A revolver appeared in Marshall's hand as if by magic. "Watch 'em General." Marshall said, "I know these people. They're Yankee spies." He looked at Harper. "And that man's hardly a Captain."

Lee's eyes widend slightly in disbelief. "Really Major? That sound a bit extreme. How do you happen to know them?"

"I met them before General." His eyes were now fasined on Jenner.

"General, we must have a moment of your time." The Doctor glanced significantly at Marshall. "Alone. Just for a little chat." The Doctor had a little talk with Lee, alone, trying to convince Lee that Marshall was not stable.

Lee looked doubtful. "I have known the Major for a good year and he is as sane as any other man I know. Indeed the analysis of the strategy and tactics of battle have never failed to be corect all the time. I don't think I ever heard sich a story."

"General, I wouldn't waste my time telling you such a story if it wasn't true. I know how it sounds but the Major's a very sick man."

Something in Lee's face must have convinced Marshall that Lee was beginning to believe the Doctor's words. The Doctor didn't know weather Lee believed him or not.

Marshall suddenly thrust himself forward, past the other officers. When he spoke his voice was grim, "General, don't believe a word he's sayin. He's lyin."

Perhaps it was the momentary madness in Marshall's eyes that made Lee look at him sharply. "What do you suggest Major? That these people are spies."

"That's exactly what I'm saying." Marshall slipped his pistol from it's holster. He walked forward, pressing the gun against the Doctor's chest.

"What's the meaning of this Major?" Lee's tone was sharp. While Marshall was distracted the Doctor raised his hand underneath the gun, grabbing Marshall's wrist. He pressed were nerve met bone, causing Marshall to drop the gun.

The Doctor picked it up, waving it in front of Marshall. The Major had his head down and the Doctor tried to get him to look at it, "If you point a gun at me one more time..." He tossed it aside.

"You'll never take me back." Marshall shouted. "I ain't goin back."

"Major?" Lee said but Marshall turned suddenly and ran toward the woods.

The Doctor watched him go, then turned to face the incredulous General Lee and the other Confederate officers. "Well that was unexpected." In other words, that was easy.

They watched him vanish into the woods toward the Luthern Seminary.

The Doctor started after him but was interupted by Lee.

"Doctor." He said, sadly. " I fear I owe you an apology. You were right about Major Marshall. In my heart I just could not believe you."

The Doctor smiled ruefully, "Under the circumstances General I wouldn't have believe me either." He turned back toward the woods. "Now, if you'll excuse me, perhaps I can help him."

Lee nodded. The Doctor going to "help" Marshall sounded more like buisness matter than actually trying to help. Lee's face was assert with sadness.

Luthern Seminanry was s sprawl of stone buildings under huge trees behind stone walls. Those walls were lined with men in Confederate gray, while dirt roads were jammed with Caissons and Cannons hauled by teams of horses.

In the distance the Doctor could see across a broad open valley to another ridge. He could make out clusters of blue figures among the crest of hills and ridges. The Nothern Army was re-grouping. Marshall's best hope had been to press for Confederate attack those Northern hills.

But where was Marshall? The Doctor wondered, gazing at the crowds of men on the road. Many of them eyed him curiously.

Something came to him. Where else could Marshall go, but back to his Unit in which he served before an annomaly in time had sent him into the future. He was driven by guilt and remorse for his brother's death and his comrades. He might try to find his brother to persuade him, even kidnap or knock him out to keep him from being at Devil's Den tomorrow. He might try and attempt to find himself to undo what had happened to him. He could drastically alter history.

The Doctor watched the crowded road, trying to recall what unit Marshall belonged to. Even though he couldn't remember it he wouldn't dismiss the idea. He wasn't going to give up. If he had to find one man through all these soldiers, so be it.

So much hinges on the next two day's battle, and even a change in one tiny insignificant detail could re-write history. As the fate of history lay in the balance, the Doctor remembered what Jenner had said. Marshall's unit was 2nd Georgia. One of the Georgia regiments that had held Burnside's Bridge against repeated attacks on Anitetam.

The Doctor found a band of perhaps ten rebel soldiers, lounging under the trees behind the Seminary. "Say, any of you fellows know where the 2nd Georgia is?" He asked. Greated with suspicious frowns, the Doctor added, "I have a friend in the Unit. I thought I might find him."

One of the soldiers chuckled. "Mister, that there's Benning's Ridge. You won't find 'im there, not by a long shot."

Several others laughed as well. The Doctor wasn't finding it something to laugh about. He put on his no foolishness face, "You think war is funny? I've seen more blood and carnage compared to what you'll ever see."

The squadrent fell silent.

"That's good." The Doctor said.

"They was on the road way." Another one of the soldiers said. He appeared to be the youngest of all of them, no more than sixteen, or it could be that he was the most frightened. "They'll be lucky to stagger in at three in the morning."

"On the road? You mean Chambersburg pike?" The young man looked at the Doctor momnetarly confused. "I mean tha' turnpike there." The Doctor nodded toward it.

"Even if it is Chambersburg pike, I reckon you're right." The boy had no reason to doubt what the strange man had said about war. And he felt it wouldn't be wise to lie to him.

The Doctor nodded to the soldiers. He wouldn't thank them for their help but the gesture was as close.

Marshall could have remembered when he had arrived in Gettysburg before he remembered at least that he'd marched in during the middle of the night, to find that the fighting had already been going on for an entire day. If Marshall wanted to find his brother he'd double back through the trees, back on the Chambersburg pike and start heading Northwest.

The Doctor might still be able to catch him unless he'd taken a horse. Marshall would be walking at a steady pace to reserve him energy for the long march that would take him to meet his brother and himself. He still had to be somewhere on Chambersburg Pike. The Doctor broke into a run. He was running past an endless collum of men, marching in the other direction. There were catcalls and cheers and some insaults. The Doctor kept running, then he saw a shape up ahead, a man in an officer's uniform. He was preparing to mount a horse he'd just taken from among several tied to a fence off the road.

The Doctor was exhausted but he still had enough strength left. He grabbed Marshall by the back of the uniform, pulling him off before he could fully mount the horse. "Everett, we've got to talk." The Doctor panted, His exhaustion was now showing.

Marshall shot him a nasty look. "We already talked." He noticed how tired the Doctor was, how old he looked. He could easily take him but he had to get to Frankie. "Get out of the way." Marshall warned him, about to mound the horse again.

The Doctor grabbed him second time. "Marshall, listen to me."

"Out of my way." Marshall grunted through his teeth.

"Alright, Marshall, you give me no choice." The Doctor took out his sonic screwdriver, raising it in the air as he pressed down a button. The sound frequency spooked the horse, making it rear back, knocking Marshall off. He hit the ground heavily. He was unconcious.

A confederat officer, seeing the fall came up and offered to help. Tow men from the road helped carry Marshall back up the ridge to where Harper, Mandy, and Doctor Jenner were waiting with General Lee and his staff.

"Will he recover?" Lee was concerned for his former aid.

"He will General. For now we'll take him over to that shed there across thr road to recover."

Mandy said goodbye to the General and the Doctor gave him a salute. Henner and Harper carried the unconcious Marshall to the TARDIS.

Harper let out a half exhausted breath as he and Jenner sat Marshall on the floor. His head hit the floor with a thump.

"Careful." The Doctor said coming over.

"Sorry." Harper apologized. "He'll probably be out for another hour."

"No, you'll scuff my floors."

Harper just tolled his eyes and then said, "What do we do now?"

"First we need to close the rift." The Doctor said. "Then we wait till Gettysburg, and we can go home."

"What about Marshall?"

"I'll get to that bit. We have to get a move on. I saw a couple of horses we could use down Chambersburg Pike. We can get to Jenner's time machine in roughly...ooh, fifteen minutes." He headed toward the doors but paused. "You know what, scratch tha. We'll take the TARDIS. Much better than horseback anyday."

"But the rift..." Mandy began.

"Isn't in the time vortex you silly girl. I'd be right about where you arrived."

"Silly?" Mandy said, offended. "Have you seen you?"

"Wha? I don't look silly." The Doctor said, immediatly thinking of his last incarnation.

"You looke too good, it's silly. Everywhere you go you have to show off to all the girls, "Hey, look at me, I'm Doctor Sexy."

"Oh, I like that." The Doctor said, flattered.

"Only you would." Only he would take that as a compliment.

The Doctor began to set the controls. When they arrived at their destination he said, "So you lot stay 'ere while I go chech it out."

"I have some experiance with the vessel." Jenner said a short time after the Doctor left. " I don't see why he wanted me to stay."

"The Doctor prefers to work things out for himself." Harper said, annoyance in his voice.

Jenner looked questioningly at the young lad. He seemed a bit jealous of the Doctor but at the same time he sensed he held gratitude toward him. "What interests me is that you're far more fascinating than the Doctor is."

"How so?" Harper didn't believe that anyone could be more fascinating than the Doctor.

"You speak of him with great arrogance yet you seem to hang on his every word like they're important."

"Everything the Doctor says is important." Did he just say that outloud? Once he found himself questioning it, he found himself not caring if he did.

"You look up to him." It seemed to Jenner that they knew each other for a lonf time but somewhere along the line they'd fallen apart somewhat. But the Captain tried retaining that friendship but the Doctor apparently was not aware of it.

How did Jenner know? Harper asked himself. Oh right. Bloody psychologists. Harper knew the Doctor since he was a kid. He took him on a few trips in the TARDIS as promised but he couldn't rememner the exact details because it hadn't happened yet. Here he was, having known the Doctor and the Doctor didn't know him at all. It was frustrating. What was the term the Doctor used to describe that situation, wibbly-wobbley-timey-stuff. In a way Harper looked up to him as his sort of childhoof hero. He had faith in the Doctor that never left. He didn't know why. Was it something the Doctor had said? He couldn't remember. That's why he supposed he took it out on the Doctor. Because it was like a big part of his life was missing because of him and because sometime he was hard to follow, running arounf all the time like he owned the place. It was hard to keep up with him sometimes and he supposed that Jenner was half right about the jealous bit. But only because he thought the Doctor would seek Mandy's attention because she's a girl. Maybe Harper wanted to give her attention but it seemed he kept getting interupted by...Doctor Sexy. He sighed because it was true. Why did she have to give him that name? He didn't hold a grudge against him. He was a soldier and was supposed to have a clear head. It also meant putting his feelings for the girl aside.

He'd listen to anything the Doctor said or do what he wanted. He trusted him. There was something about his exuberant but frustrating personality. It was in the way he walked, and in his eyes. They were eyes of old, the eyes of an old man with lots of stories to tell. He'd listen to anything. The Doctor gave him courage. If the need arose that would be the only thing that would keep him fighting, right to the bitter end.

"Would the Doctor mind if I take a look around?" Jenner decided he'd leave to lighten the mood. And it looked like the young man should spend time with a woman.

Harper waved him on, "Yeah, go ahead." He didn't think that Jenner meant outside. So when Jenner headed for the doors he went to stop him. "No, you can't go outside." But Jenner already left.

Mandy grabbed Harper's arm. "Let the Doctor handle it."

"I think he's handling too much." Harper tought of what to say next. "That was one of the most awkward conversations I ever had." He changed the subject.

"I felt like I was intruding again to be honest." Mandy said.

"Again?" Harper asked her.

"I heard Jenner and the Doctor talking earlier." She didn't know exactly how to word it. "They were having the same sort of conversation."

"What about?"

"You know, the basic psychologist stuff,get inside your head." Mandy paused, examining the odds and ends of the TARDIS console. She plucked a string of what looked like half a violin. Unlike the conversation between Jenner and Harper, being awkward as it was, Jenner's and the Doctor's wasn't anywhere near awkward. It had been a chilling feeling. It made her worried. "I'm worried about..."

The Doctor came back into the TARDIS. "Just need to work on the schematics, then we're out of here." He looked over at Marshall who was still unconcious on the floor. The Major began to groan but he did not stir. The Doctor turned his attention back to the other two humans. "Where's Jenner?" Neither of them could look at him. "Letting a Civil War enthusiast likt Doctor Jennet wander unattended at the fringe of a Civil War skirmish, was asking for trouble." Again he had a feeling it was the blonde girl. Always the blondes cause too much trouble, and red heads. The Doctor thought frustrated. I should stick with brunette's. "What were you thinking Mandy?"

"Me?" Mandy pointed at Harper. "It was him."

"I tried to stop him but she told me to let him." Harper confessed.

"Would you two just...stop acting like children for at least two seconds?"

Mandy and Harper fell quiet. Harper looked down at the floor.

"Ok, then." The Doctor turned back toward the doors. "You stay here. I'll go get him." But of course they didn't stay.

The Rebel Calvary was in full retreat, clattering among the road back to town. The Union infantry had reached the bridge. Booming across the bridge were six horses hauling small two wheeled wagons with a cannon hitched behind. There were whoops and yells and firing of shots from both sides.

The Doctor bounced across the meached where Jenner was crouched in the grass. By the time The Doctor reached him, the union troops had unlimbered the cannon.

"Come on, Doctor." The Doctor called to Jenner. "No time for sight seein. Back to the TARDIS."

"But this is my first chance to see a real Civil War battle."

"It could also be your last." The Doctor yelled over the gun fire. "Those are real bullets they're firin. Do you want to get your 'dang' head shot off?"

Ther was another firing of shots. The confederat calvary had been apparently been waiting for the yankees in town. The cannon fired with a deep hollow boom.

"I'd say we have more to worry about than getting out dang heads shot off." Harper said, from the other side of Jenner. Mandy was behind them.

"The Doctor looked back at her. "I told you..." he sighed and gave up. "You never listen."

There were more shots but it seemed the battle was over. The Doctor pulled Jenner away and toward the abandoned time ship. "You come with me. I might need you." He let go of Jenner and disappeared down the hatch.

"Come on." said Mandy, grabbing Harper by the arm. But as they approached the time ship they were blinded bu a bright light. Then everything went dark.

Harper couldn't see a thing.

He had the notion he was lying on a bed of damp soil, his arms sprawled. He scruched up his fingers and felt them sink into the moist Earth. His head swimming. He sat up, rubbing his eyes. He spent a moment picking the mulch from his hair and brushing off his face. He got to his geet, searching for Mandy. She was sittinh not far away, rubbing the back of her head. "What happened to you face?" She asked him as he approached.

"Oh, you know. The explosion." He said as if that would explain the streaks of dirt on his face. He watched her eyes widen as the realization of what had happened hit her. She scambled to her feet.

Where Jenner's time ship had been there was a big empty hole. "They're gone." She said.

Gone where? He couldn't see any remains of the space ship anywhere.

"Where is he?" She said, slowly stepping toward the hole to stand by Harper. "Where's the Doctor?"

Harper took a deep breath. He'd been dreading a conversation like this or someone telling him the Doctor went and blown himself up. He had found that funny but he wasn't finding it funny now. "I think he's gone."

"Well I can see that." She snapped. "But where?"

"I mean he's gone." Harper said, his voice level.

She looked at him, eyes pleading. "Don't say that." She possibly lost a friend and he was going into soldier mode about it. He was his friend too. The Doctor just couldn't simply be gone. He'd have thought og something clever.

"I think he and Doctor Jenner must have been caught up in the implosion." He said. "They went with the ship, sucked through the rift."

"We don't know that." But where else would he be? A single tear rolled down her cheel, trying to hold back a flood. She never knew it possible to care so much about someone in the little amount of time you'd known them. She felt like she knew him. She had read his file.

Harper wanted to walk over to her and comfort her but stopped himself. They stood for a moment in silience both of them numbed by the reality of what had occured.

There were worst places to be stuck, Harper supposed. He supposed 1883 wasn't that bad. The two of them could start a life here, get married, settle down, start a family...him settle down? Yeah right. He had as much of a chance as the Doctor. If he was...

Harper felt a gust of wind stir his hair, causing him to blink. He turned to see fallen leaves dancing around his feet. "Hold on...that's..."

The air was rent by the sudden wheezing roar of the TARDIS engines as the blue box folded into reality, a few meters from where they were standing.

"Doctor." Mandy ran to the TARDIS, throwing open the doors. "Come on, Captain, quickly." She called, disappearing inside. Harper rushed in after her.

The scene in the TARDIS was one of devastation. The floor was covered with the scattered remnants of the time ship. Bits of it were strewn everywhere.

At the center of the mess, the Doctor and Jenner lay still and unconcious. Marshall was still unconcious too. The rough trip must've knocked him out again. Harper hoped he was ok, being rattled around a lot. Still his biggest concern was the Doctor. He ran to the Doctor's side and Mandy went to Jenner's, dropping to his knees.

She checked Jenner's pulse quickly, then checked Marshall's. "Both still breathing." She called, then went over to where Harper knelt. "Is he alive?" She asked urgently. She wasn't sure she wanted to hear an answer.

"I think so." Harper said.

Mandy leaned over the Doctor, brushing his hair back from his face. Now that she could see his face properly she could see that it was rather pale and drawn. Yet he looked so peaceful, so serene, lying there. She was at a loss for words, so Harper spoke.

"Doctor, it's time to wake up now." He said in his soldier voice. "I'm not putting up with this any longer."

Mandy found her voice but when she spoke it came out softly, barely a whisper. "Doctor?"

The Doctor's eyes blinked open with a sudden start. He glanced up at Harper in suprise and then sat bolt up right, almost making Harper and Mandy jump a foot. He looked around as if startled to find himself alive in the TARDIS, surrounded by debris. "Right. TARDIS. Yes." He said, although his expression betrayed his disorientation. He looked at Mandy and Harper in turn. "Ok. Right. Let's check."

"Don't worry, you don't need to." She assured him. "Still Doctor Sexy."

The Doctor smiled but then looked serious. "Still gotta check." He tapped his two front teeth with two fingers. "Teeth. Ok. Yes. Defiantly." He smiled again only it was brighter. "You're both still in one peace." He suddenly frowned. "Although...What did I tell you about my floors? Really Amanda, you're covered in mud, just look at the state of your knees."

Mandy didn't care about him scolding her or calling her by her full name. She didn't even bother rolling her eyes at him. Instead she threw her arms around his neck and planted a kiss on his cheek.

Harper looked on with a crooked smile as the Doctor patted her awkwardly on the back.

"Ok. Right. Things to do." The Doctor said, getting to his feet. "Best check the scanner to make sure that rift had closed." He stopped as he glanced around the wreckage, his eyes settling on the prone figure of Doctor Jenner still lying ontop a bundle of severed cables. "Oh, him." He dashed over to the old man who was beginning to wake up. Harper came over to help but the Doctor waved him away, "Give him a moment." said the Doctor. "He'll be find."

"And so will he." Harper saw that Marshall was waking up as well.

"So, Doctor. How did you..?" said Mandy, glancing around the TARDIS.

"Oh," said the Doctor. "Simple really. I programmed the TARDIS to home in on my psychic signal at the moment of the implosion, scooping me out before I was dragged through the rift."

"But how?" asked Harper. "I thought you said you couldn't risk the TARDIS getting caught up in the implosion."

The Doctor gave him a sly grin.

"So you were bluffing." Harper said.

The Doctor grinned. "Bluffing? Me?" He looked down at the sound of Jenner stirring. "ello."

Jenner slowly opened his eyes and looked up at the three of them standing over him. "Doctor." He said perplexed. "You're alive"

"Yes." said the Doctor. "So are you."

They'd been distracted with concern over Jenner that they hadn't realized that Marshall was fully awake and had been listening.

Jenner pulled himself up in a sitting position, dusting himself off. "Yes. It appears so I am."

"You don't have to worry about your time ship. It's been destroyed." The Doctor said.

"Yes, well, I suppose it had to be done." Jenner said, sounding disappointed.

A clattering disrupted them. Marshall had gotten up and made a run for the TARDIS doors. The Doctor caught him.

The other TARDIS occupants were suprised that Marshall didn't try to fight the Doctor. Instead he tried to have a reasonable talk. Either it suprised the Doctor as well or not, he didn't show it.

"Doctor, I can't just abandon my brother."

"Everett, there's nothing you can do. Let it go."

"No, I can't. Don't you see? At Devil's Den, I ran. I dropped my rifle an' ran, leavin Frankie there fightin. I ran and hid an' the next thing I knew I was in the future. It took me awhile to convince myself that I wasn't dead."

"How do you know Frankie's dead?" The Doctor asked. If Marshall saw it happed or his brother's name was writen on a gravestone it was a fixed point.

"I saw a monument, just before they came and locked my up for bein' crazy." There was pain in Marshall's voice.

The Doctor was obviously becoming uncomfortable by this conversation, but he was trying his best to hide it.

"I found a monument to the Georgia troops at Gettysburg and his name was among the missing." Marshall continued. He was trying with all his strength not to break down.

"If he was among the missing that means he could've surrived, yeah?" Mandy asked Marshall. She was trying to help.

"The missing count as the dead." Marshall said flatly. "I was in the future, in a strange place an I find out about Frankie..." He shook his head. "Well I ain't gonna let him down."

"Everett." Jenner said, "You're carrying the guilt like you enjoy it."

"My what?"

"You act like you enjoy being miserable." Jenner said. "Now you're about to wreck history just to show how sorry you are?"

Harper spoke next, "Frankie's death was not your fault. What could you have done? Taken the bullet in his place? Isn't it possible you both would have died? And what would that have proved?"

And then Marshall broke down.

"You two just stop it." Mandy scowled. She went over to Marshall to comfort him. "Is there a chance your brother could have survived?"

"Of course, he didn't." The Doctor said. "He's dead."

"How can you say that?"

"Because it's true." He answered.

"We're only trying to handle it." Harper said.

"Well stop trying to handle it." She told him. "I'm trying to help. There's a difference." She soothed Marshall as he sobbed. "Everett we can help you." She gave the Doctor a desperate look. "Doctor we have to save his brother."

The TARDIS materialized in the midst of fire, blood, and the thunder of gunfire. Huge boulders, some the size of houses loomed above them on all sides, leaning against one another.

And there were men, fighting each other. Fighting and dying among the rocks, masses of men in confederate gray and brown struggled up the west and south slopes of the hill, swept past where the TARDIS sat huddled in the cleft between two large boulders and a clump of trees. Men in union blue were at the top of the ridge firing, loading and firing again.

"Devil's Den." The Doctor said, "2nd of July."

Marshall walked up the the view screen and pointed, "See them two big rocks? Well last time I saw Frankie, he was just on the other side. Then...then I ran into that there canyon an next thing I know I heard a strange noise, I always figured it was Yankee gunfire exploded about me and sort of pushed me out of my own time ya know?"

The Doctor was studying the TARDIS instruments. He was comparing their trip so far with their attempt to materialize at Devil's Den on their way to Seminary Ridge. It had caused them to jump back a day. "We'll all know for sure in just a moment." The Doctor said. "Watcj mpw."

They all turned their attention toward the view screen.

The Confederate soldiers had swept over the hill top, firing from behind the boulders, reloading, firing again. There was movement in the woods to the left as Conferderate Units rushed across the lower slope of Big Round Top, abgling to face Little Round Top. The Union line advanced again. The Confederates began to withdraw. There was a struggle going on at the edge of some woods firther to the North were the rebels were fighting.

"Over there." The Doctor said. "I think I found somethin."

Someone had run into the gap between the two boulders, crawling on his hands and knees to get through the tunnel. The Doctor increased the magnification on the view screen. It was indeed, as he expected Everett Marshall.

A warning light flashed on the console. A storm was building up in the Time Vortex. Ther were untouched by it this time because they were fully materialized. Suddenly the TARDIS engines started up, they were dematerializing.

"Doctor." Mandy said. "What is happening."

The TARDIS was materializing in the gap between the boulders but was blocked by Marshall's presence. The TARDIS tried to side step him but couldn't because of the surrounding boulders. Something had to give and it did. A hole opened up in time and space and Everett Marshall vanished.

The TARDIS had an auto mechanizim that kept it from materializing inside, say a boulder, or fifty feet underground. The circuits normally shifted the TARDIS like it did last time but something went wrong. "I thought so." The Doctor said. "The TARDIS automatic controls should have moved us aside in space or time but something went wrong." He jabbed a finger behind him at Marshall. "Instead it moved him aside. Only he's a lot less massive than the TARDIS. He got moved in time about 1,000 years instead of moving in space." He turned to face Marshall. "It was him."

"Why'd it sent him that far in the future?" Mandy asked.

"When the TARDIS materializes it displaces artron engery. It's a form of background radiation, don't worry it's perfectly harmless. And all that energy had to go somewhere. Where did it all go? Marshall absorbed it. It remained dormant until Marshall started feeling guilty about his brother's death. The energy was pulling him back."

"Like a magnet." Harper said.

"Yes that's what I...yes like a magnet."

"But we didn't get pulled through." said Harper.

"That's because you weren't exposed to it long enough."

"When the hole open in my office, it felt different." Jenner stated. "I wasn't being dragged like Marshall, or exposed to this arton energy."

"You probably just most likely got in the way. Sorry, Doctor, Marshall." Even though he said it, he didn't feel it. What did he feel? He still felt that empty feeling.

"That's ok. Doctor." Marshall said. "I wouldn't have missed it for the world."

The Doctor threw a lever. The doors opened and Marshall and the Doctor stepped out.

"Frankie." Marshall yelled about the thunder of falling shells, the incesstant rattling of muskets. "C'mon Frankie, over here."

Frankie saw him. He was speachless, his mouth fell open. With some coaxing from Everett, he trotted up to meet him and hustle him inside the TARDIS.

It took some time fot Frankie Marshall to recognize his brother and to accept all that had happened to him. When Frankie came face to face with his own brother he was suprised to see him wearing the uniform of a Major.

"Then you was the at the battle og sherpsburg." Frankie said. "You were tryin yo get me to go home to our folks. I called you a traitor."

Now there was time for explainations. They were safely within the time vortex beyong the reach of shell fire and death that claimed the hills of Gettysburg. Frankie didn't understand a word but he was relieved at learning that his brother wasn't dead.

Marshall was curious however, "Doctor, doesn't this change history? I saw Frankie's name on that monument.."

"History is rarely percise. Often a man would go missing from action on presumed dead. Your brother was only among the missing."

"Was your name on the monument?" Jenner asked.

Marshall nodded. "It gave me a funny feelin."

"Well, there you are." Jenner said.

"But where?" The Doctor said.

"Huh?" Jenner missed the joke but Mandy caught it.

"He means where they're going." She said. "The Doctor sometimes gets a bit confused when he's explaining about time."

"Wha? Confused? Never, I'm a time lord." But the Doctor saw the expression on Mandy's face. "But what I meant was, where to now for you two. Dropping you back off at Gettysburg in the middle of battle is out of the question."

"That might be a bit hard to explain." Marshall admitted. "I guess we can't go back, huh?"

"That depends. I can't let you go back if you're going to tamper with history again but it seems to me you reasons for doing so have been lost."

Marshall thought a moment. "Maybe so Doctor. But you know...I've been thinkin. There's not really a lot got us back in the 1860's. I'd think I'd be mighty tempted to...tinker a bit. I know when the automobiles gonna come alone, when mens' gonna fly."

"What in tarnation are you talkin about?" Frankie demanded.

"Trust me, you wouldn't believe me if I told you. Best I can see is maybe you'll get to see it for yourself." He turned to the Doctor. "Doctor if it's all right with you, maybe you could give up a lift...say as far as the 28th century?"

* * *

After the Doctor dropped the brother and Doctor Jenner off, the TARDIS was awefully quiet. Harper went off to find a bedroom. He had picked one earlier if he ever decided to stay and travel.

The Doctor was in his bedroom, well what Mandy assumed must be his bedroom.

"You could've let Marshall save his brother from the start." She said.

"You know why I didn't?" He sounded frustrated. "I lost my family and I was thinkin I can't save mine. He can't save his. Selfish, ain't it?"

"It's understandable."

She was accepting him? The Doctor didn't understand. His behavior, he did not like how he acted. "I'm tired of that word word, been hearin it all day."

"Maybe it's the word of the day." There was silence. "You put is danger. Barely listened to a word I said. When you pointed that gun at Marshall, it's like you weren't you. What were you thinking?" She wanted to know what had been going through his head at the time he held Marshall at gunpoint. Her first thought was confirmed.

"That's the thing. I wasn't thinking."

"How are you feeling?" How did he feel about that?

"I don't know what I feel." He turned away, staring blankly at the wall. Then he put his head in his hands.

"Headache again?"

He looked at her. "Yeah, and it's you."

"I got some asprin..."

"No, different bilology.

"Right."

"I think it's best you get some sleep."

"Yeah, you too." She closed the door on the way out.

The Doctor opened the journal on his desk and started writing.

_I thought the worst thing that could happen to you was losing everyone close to you. I was wrong. The worst thing is realizing that you lost yourself. _


	10. Mission to Venus

"Two and a half billion light years, and you want to go to an Art Gallery?" Mandy said, mocking him from earlier. She had wanted to go shopping, but an art Gallery?

"Two and a half million light years." The Doctor corrected. "And it's not just any old art gallery."

"Don't tell me because it has a food court with all the pizza you can eat." Harper responded.

"Art is the window to the human soul or Andromedan soul. I'f you prefer I'd more than gladly take you somewhere filled with danger, excitement and death. Your call. And pizza is the only delicacy in the Andromeda Galaxy. I do get to choose this time." The Doctor said. He threw a lever but the TARDIS admitted a strange noise and the ground started vibrating under their feet.

"Uh...is this supposed to happen?" Charlie got no answer. Everything seemed to swirl around them as he grabbed tight to the railing.

* * *

The TARDIS materialized with a dreadful crash. It hurled all of its occupants to the floor, except for the Doctor who somehow managed to stay on his feet.

Harper sat up, "What, was it this time?"

"This time?" The Doctor gave him a cold stare. "It was just some minor difficulties. And it doesn't happen often."

"Too often for me." Mandy said, tenderly touching her head where it had made contact with the hard floor.

"Every time we materialize something is displaced. It's quite simply the proposition of an object in bath water. Drop it in and the water rises."

"And what," Mandy wondered as she pulled herself up, "did we drop into?"

The Doctor studied the console controls. "Good question." He murmured. "At least we arrived." A gauge caught his eye. It alone, among all others registered something. "Tha's interesting. This one says we're moving." He stepped over to another gauge. "This one says we're not."

"Great." Charlie said with displacement. "So we can be anywhere."

"We are in a time machine." Mandy reminded him.

"Or anywhen." The Captain added.

The Doctor pressed a switch, looking remarkably cheerful. "Let's go and find out, shall we?" He headed toward the doors

the Doctor turned to them. Instead of being curious and anxious his new humans stayed put. "A little to late for second thoughts dun' ye think?" He adressed to them.

"Doctor, we don't know what's out there. There could be no air out there." Harper said.

The Doctor smiled and slipped out the doors. Seconds later he peered back inside, he had the sonic screwdriver in his hand. "Oxygen levels." He looked at the readings. "Normal."

"Obviously." Harper muttered.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." A smile slowly spread on Harper's face.

After the Doctor exited the TARDIS, Mandy and Harper ventured out.

The roof high above was metal as were the walls and floor. Rivets and bolts lined the seams. But what really caught Harper's eye were the glass jars. There were rows and rows of them. Inside the jars, Harper supposed were plants but what sort was beyond his imagining.

Mandy was studying the plants as well. "I've never seen anything like this before. Have you Doctor?"

But the Doctor's attention was else where. He had crossed to the side and was examining the metal surroundings. His sonic still out. "That explains why the TARDIS thought we were moving." Harper and Mandy looked at him questioningly and he grinned. "We're on a space ship."

"A space ship, again?" Mandy asked, agitated.

"A space ship." Harper repeated. "I was expecting something bigger, a planet maybe." The past had been alright for him but compared to that, this wasn't a step up. Immediately Harper sensed the tension and wished he had kept his mouth shut.

"Why do you insist that it's my job to please you?" The Doctor was on the verge of shouting but refrained from letting his anger get the better of him.

The Captain nervously changed the subject. "So, we're somewhere in space."

"Precisely." The Doctor said. He sniffed slightly. He still felt distant, like he was half asleep, going through the motions. He needed something to spark his drive. That would prove difficult if these humans kept getting on his nerves. Why did he bother? Then he reminded himself, he needed the company. He had better, but if they were going to prove their worth they needed to respect his rules. "I can't always determine where we're going to land. Sometimes the TARDIS chooses. She gets picky sometimes. And it's a she, not some fancy kitchen appliance." The Doctor's mind was all over the place, Harper noticed but he and Mandy suspected nothing of it. They sort of expected it.

"What are those plants?" Mandy nodded to the jars.

The Doctor approached one of the Jars and tapped it, experimentally.

"Careful Doctor." Harper warned.

"It's quite safe." The Doctor said. "They aren't trapped in here for nuthin." He took a closer look. "Interesting. Aren't they?"

Mandy peered curiously at the snaking plants. "But what are they used for?" She asked.

"Some sort of food supply." The Doctor guessed.

Mandy looked disgusted. "You mean people eat these things?"

"Probably."

"Yuk." Mandy pulled a face.

"Not really." The Doctor said. "You can cook almost anything, add spices, herbs or salt and pepper, make it look attractive and down the hatch."

Mandy cast her eyes up at the higher shelves. "It's still disgusting."

"What do we do now?" Harper asked.

"Leave, I hope." said Mandy.

"First off," The Doctor said, "That's not what we're going to do. At least until I find out what exactly these things are."

Harper's patience was wearing thin. "I'll tell you all you want about those things." He took an axe from the wall.

The Doctor looked considerable at the axe in his hands, then back at the jars. "I wonder if that's a good idea."

"Not." Mandy protested. "For heaven's sake. You don't know what they are or what they'll do. Just leave it alone."

Harper lifted the axe, tempted to use it. (Not on Mandy. He wasn't a homicidal maniac.)

At that moment a door slid open behind him. There stood a man carrying a metal cylinder which must contain food for the plants. He was dressed like a sailor. At the sight of Harper, and the slightly raised axe, he gasped. Dropping the cylinder, the sailor bolted back through the door.

"No, wait." The Doctor called. But the door had already slid shut.

"Have I gone mad or did I just see a sailor." Mandy asked.

"It was a man dressed like a sailor." The Doctor told her. "There's a difference."

"Can I smash this jar then?" Harper asked, the axe still in his hands.

"No, put it down before you scare anyone else." The Doctor sounded like he was telling a child not to run with scissors. "I'd like to take a proper look. But not right now. That sailor probably went to find who ever's in charge. In a few seconds they'll have the alarm bells ringin."

Soon they were. The door slid back open and the first matelot came in with two others. All carried guns. One was an officer.

"Don't move." The officer said.

"If ye noticed we're on a ship. In space. There's not a lot of places to go." The Doctor said, smartly. "And I'm willing to bet a walk outside isn't an option."

"Who are you?" The officer spoke with an American accent.

"Are you the commanding officer?" The Doctor asked.

"I am First Lt. Tedder."

"I'll speak to your commander." said the Doctor.

Tedder nodded and stood aside, indicating a passageway beyond. They filed out, the guns following them.

They emerged into a control room. A man stood at the console. His hair dark and beard showed signs of graying.

Tedder stood rigidly to attention. "These people were found in the hold. sir."

"Very well, Lieutenant." The man said. He didn't take his eyes off the taller of the bunch. He looked to be a military man. "Who the hell are you?" He asked the three people now standing in his control room. He wondered which of the two men were in charge.

The Doctor introduced himself and the Captain, and Mandy.

_Ah, so the military man was in charge._ The man at the console thought.

Harper remained passive as they were introduced. Mandy, however, waved nervously.

"We're travelers." The Doctor continued, "We're traveling. There was a problem with my ship and she landed here."

The man at the console, the commander was taken a back. This man was the commander and not the fellow ? He guessed that made sense. But how had they landed on his ship? "Here, on my ship? That's impossible. Nothing can get in and out. We're in flight."

"My ship has a way of opening doors."

"Do I look like a fool?"

To the Doctor he sort of did. "Of course not." The Doctor said.

"Since you're already here we can't do anything about that we have no choice in the matter. But I expect you to help with the duties if and when needed. I am Commander Burrigan. Should I tell you to do something you do it and you do it fast."

The Doctor looked uncomfortable. Mandy and Harper knew that the Doctor didn't take to orders, no matter what position they were.

"Why's that?" The Doctor asked.

"This is the first human guided trip to Venus." Burrigan announced. "We were setting the course when we got a distress call from the inhabitance. We're carrying an emergency supply to the planet."

"Is that what those plants are for?" Mandy asked.

"Yes. They're called Leechen If it gets free in an oxygen atmosphere it spreads rapidly, devouring anything in it's path, before it devours itself."

Harper was relieved he hadn't smashed that jar then.

"How do you control them on Venus?" Mandy wondered.

"Venus had no oxygen." Said the Doctor.

"Right." Burrigan suspected that this Doctor was a scientist. "But they're given enough oxygen. Not too much just enough in order to keep the growth rate down. Now you'll be taken to a cabin for the time being."

The Doctor turned to Harper, resting an arm on his briefly, directing a thought to the Captain, _Come on, Charlie. Help the good commander out._

Harper spoke up. "I'll stay." He didn't know what made him say it. He furrowed his brows.

"You'll stay?' Burrigan puzzled. "Why?"

"I don't mind what I do as long as I'm not locked up in a cabin."

"Can you clean bridge work?" Burrigan asked, testing the boys limitations.

"Just give me some metal polish and a rag and see for yourself." Harper turned to the Doctor, who flashed him a smile. Harper grimaced. The Doctor managed to get out of this one.

"I think I shall." Burrigan nodded to a crew member, who took Harper to one side while Mandy and the Doctor were taken away to their cabin.

The crew member's name was Jacobson. Harper turned his head away as he pressed exactly what he asked for into his hands. "Polish everything that shines." Jacobson said, "Then tell me what you're doing in this Jonas' ship."

"Jonas?"

"Burrigan." Jacobson said. "None of us trusts 'im. He's been in two disasters. First time 'is ship was seriously damaged. Second he lost it and had to get some one in a space shuttle. There's a few deade men wouldn't speak to well of what's left of 'em. But does 'e care?" I ask ye?" Jacobson's accent was close to the Doctor's Harper noticed. But the details Jacobson described sounded familiar.

"Right, mate." said a fellow cre memner, standing next to him. "The sooner we land this load of rubbish on Venus and get some again, the better of we'll be."

"Rubbish is it?" Harper asked. "Then you'd better start prayin' that rubbish don't get free because if it does we're all finished."

"All I want is danger money." The crew member said.

"I know you're short mate." Jacobson said to him. "Two months of wine and women and you're back to buisness again. Just make sure Jonas Burrigan doesn't find out. He'll probably throw you out of the airlock."

Tedder loomed up behind them. "Get on with your work." He snapped. "The next man I find talking gets twenty-four hours in the paint locker without bread and water."

Harper muttered something unsavory under his breath but kept his attention to his work.

A crackling sound came from the speakers [laced about the area. The radio operator turned his dials, then looked up at Burrigan. "Venus, coming in sir."

"Very well." Burrigan flicked a switch on the control panel.

Several crew members turned to their controls. Burrigan was stopped short by a call from the radar tracker. "Unidentified object heading directly toward us, sir. Starboard thirty-two and closing fast."

"What does it look like?" The Commander responded.

"Could be a meteorite, sir. But it looks like it's changing course."

"Meteorites don't chance course." Burrigan said. He headed to the tracker screen. His face remained impassive as he studied it. Harper could see it now too.

"Hard to starboard." Burrigan said.

"Hard to starboard." The Helmsmen spun the wheel.

A sense of Deja Vu swept over Harper. He felt like he was in a scende from Titanic or on the actual ship itself.

"We're on collision course, sir." The tracker said, worried.

"I see that. All hands on emergency stations." Burrigan demanded.

_I'm going to kill him. _Harper thought just as the sound of the alarm siren whooped through the air. Men raced to their stations.

Mandy and the Doctor re-appeared wondering what was going on.

"Check the safety shield." Burrigan gave the next order.

"Safety shield secure, sir." Came the answer.

"All secure yourselves." Burrigan said. "This might be a bit bumpy."

Everyone grabbed hold of something, except for the Doctor. Harper noticed the Doctor was inspecting the tracking screen in fascination.

"Ten seconds." The tracker said. "Five."

There was an almighty crash. The ship literally seemed to jump to one side. The lights flickered. Then there was silence. The lights returned to normal.

"Damage reports." Burrigan ordered, then to the helmsman. "Can you get her back on coarse?"

"She's answering to the helm, sir."

"Then do it." Burrigan turned his attention to the video screen, scanning the ship's hull. The meteor had been a small one, a quarter the height of the ship's side. Half of it had embedded in the metal. Harper considered it looked like a boulder or a part of a disintegrated planet. He wondered if the ship had some sort of gravity field that had drawn the meteor in. He glanced at the Doctor. If anyone would know it was him. But the Doctor was still absorbed in the video pictures, somewhere in his own thoughts, as was often the case.

Tedder reported to Burrigan, "A slight leak amidships, sir. It'll have to be seen to."

"Get the repair crew into their suits." Burrigan said. "And I want rid of that piece of rock. We'll have trouble landing with that in the way.

"Aye, aye, sir."

The Doctor briefly looked up from the screen. "I think you're supposed to say, Aye, Aye, Captain. Unless you happen to be space pirates?" He shook his head when he got no response. He turned back to the screen.

"There is one problem, sir." Tedder told Burrigan.

"Which is?" Burrigan asked.

"Two of the repair crew are in sick bay. One recovering from an appendix, one from a broken arm."

"Then make up their numbers from the rest of the crew. We'll need tool carriers. Anyone can do that."m

"Right, sir."

Two men, space suited and equipped with their tools, the repair crew entered the air lock, waited for the air to be withdrawn, then made their way outside. Their reports began to come on. The damage was minimal and the meteor was easily pried away. Burrigan was relieved. He prdered the leechen to be checked. Harper joined Mandy and the Doctor, looking out the view port.

"That's interesting." The Doctor said.

"Very." Mandy said, even though she didn't know what he meant.

"What's so fascinating about a piece of rock?" Harper stepped close, examining the chuck of meteor that floated by.

"It's hollow." The Doctor stated. "I know your experience is limited but mine isn't. I've never seen a hallow meteor before."

"Is there something in there?" Harper wondered.

"Even if there was how would it have survived the impact?" Mandy asked. "It's smashed to bits."

"The question is does a pace vessel have to be made out of metal?' The Doctor said. "Whatever it's made of it would still need a propulsion unit wouldn't it. I doesn't see one, assuming it was launched from a gravity field. That isn't necessarily the case."

"But it followed up." Harper said. "It was able to change course."

"Indeed, yes. That's what I find interesting."

"Perhaps it was pulled in by the ship's gravity field." Harper suggested.

"Possibly." said the Doctor. "But not necessarily. Probably."

"Burrigan approached the Doctor's party. They were hardened space-travelers who had learned to take things as they came. But a guided meteorite could be something beyond their experience. He could sense something off about the Doctor. "Are you all right, Doctor?"

The Doctor avoided the question by asking his own, "Mind if I ask you, what might seem like an irrelevant question?"

"Not at all, Doctor."

"This ship's technology is advanced. You could get you ship to do all the work. Your crew wouldn't even have to lift a finger. So why do they?"

A glint of amusement showed in the Commander's eyes as he thought a moment. "Traveling in deep space can do strange things to a man. It can not only make them lose their identities but their minds as well. Nothing to do except for dedicated exercises can become boring and pointless. There are few cases of people going completely insane." Burrigan seemed to have described the Doctor in those few sentences. He did feel like he was losing it, losing who he was. His old rules seemed pointless. He was getting tired of the same rules and he wasn't certain who he was anymore. Burrigan saw the blank stare the Doctor gave him. It chilled him to the bone. "After all, just staring out there can make you feel the vast emptiness." His words fit exactly what the Doctor often felt. Burrigans words rang true. But the Doctor didn't show he was right. He had felt that emptiness so many times. "So I put my men to work." Burrigan continued. "Make them feel that they are performing tasks, in effect that without them this ship wouldn't function."

"And would it?" Harper asked.

"Not as we have it rigged at the moment, not without the men performing their duties. But in an emergency we can switch everything into computer override. All we need then is one man on a keyboard. We try to avoid that for obvious reasons."

"Sounds reasoning." The Doctor said.

Burrigan turned back to the console, then back at the Doctor. He seemed deeply puzzled. "Are you all right, Doctor?" He asked again.

"Quite fine." The Doctor said with a smile, "Yes."

Burrigan didn't believe it. He had seen many men lose their minds during his travels, and the Doctor was headed down that road. At least he had his friends to help him. Burrigan went to the controls as a voice drifted from a speaker.

"Venus, calling Medusa." Came the voice.

"Hearing you loud and clear." Burrigan said. "Come in."

"Are you still on course commander?"

"We are now. we had a small incident with a drifting meteorite. We've also increased speed."

"Good. We've fuelled up the Space ship, Aran. She just launced. She'll let you know the point of inteception."

"Has she enough fuel?"

"More than you because the distance is shorter. If you can transfer some of the Leechen she can do a longer burn off and be back here well ahead of you."

"Good. We'll wait to hear from you."

"There's just one thing commander, is the leechen secured tightly in the jars. We don't want any accidents."

"I was told it was." Burrigan replied. "The jars have taken a shock or two, we can only hope."

"Thank you commander. Please hold to your present course. we'll keep in touch. Out."

Burrigan stood a moment in thought, looming over the console. It occurred to Harper how the commander held himself, that this man was a born leader. He radiated such confidence and authority that it would have taken someone of considerable nerve to question it. Harper had seen it before.

Burrigan remained motionless, only saying to the helmsman, /;Hold on course."

"Can't sir." The helmsman said. "The instruments have gone potty."

"Then do the best you can."

"There's nothing I can do, sir." There was fear in the helmsman's voice.

Burrigan turned and surveyed the control room. His presence filling Harper with conviction that if his control were to snap he would break everything in sight, he probably could. Everyone, even Mandy and the Doctor remained silent, the sheer power of the Commander was sufficient to button any one's lip. This was no time for asking questions. there was no time for doing anything other than stand in silence while the man waited for something to evolve. Like a rock he stood, his mind as cold as a block of ice. Harper could not help but feel wonder as he watched the commander standing there as though he was made of rock.

"What you're watching, " The Doctor said, "is a perfect demonstration of how humans got as far as they did. Their determination and inventiveness."

"Then why is he standing so still?" Mandy asked. "Isn't he scared?"

"If he shows as much sliver of fear, the crew will catch it. So he doesn't." The Doctor thought for a moment and fixed a cold eye on Harper. "You see a Captain won't admit to fear. He's a born survivor. He'll only recognize psychical pain as a warning from his body that's something's wrong. That man's a born leader. He does what he thinks is right and he doesn't admit to no misgivings. I would not like to be his enemy." Metaphorically he was talking about himself but the humans didn't catch on.

Harper observed the commander. The sheer power of him still filled the room, still as if he was made of stone. It was the same feeling he got around the Doctor. No he would not want to be his enemy.

The door opened and the party sent to inspect the leechen came back. There was a flash of blue light. One of the men fell to the floor, hands on his throat. He slumped and fell still. He was dead. The ship's Doctor went through the ritual examination but everyone could see that he was already gone. No one could be that ashen gray and survive. But what killed him? There had to be some explanation.

Burrigan asked but the Medical man shook his head.

"It appears he was electrocuted." said the examiner.

"But he wasn't in contact with anything electrical." Burrigan said.

Mandy looked questioningly at the Doctor. The Doctor was strangly calm, his mind presumably someplace else, dealing with another problem.

"Get him out of the way." Burrigan curtly said. "We'll give him a space burial. But first I want to know what the hell is going on here." He turned to Tedder. "I want to know you report, Lt."

"All's well, sir." Tedder said. "The jar's secure."

Burrigan indicated the body. "I meant him."

"I'm sorry, sir. I'm as puzzled as you are. For all I know it could have happened to me."

"And I'm beginning to think it's a pity it didn't. The best leaders lead from the front. The reason you're an officer is because you never require your men to do anything you wouldn't do yourself." Burrigan's face was now set like iron. "Why was he ahead of you?"

"I'm sorry, sir. We just happened to come back in that way."

"In the future, you go first. When in doubt, lead. And right now we're in doubt. Something's gone cockeyed and we haven't the remotest idea what it is until we find out you will behave properly. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir." Tedder was slightly humiliated but more angry. Being a soldier, Harper sensed the tension between the two men. Harper wished the anger could have been vented somewhere in private, but being in deep space in a space ship privacy was a little hard to come by. Despite witnessing Burrigan's fury, Harper was still watching the Doctor who appeared to be watching nothing at all. The Time Lord briefly glanced at the dead man, then tilt his head to the side, as if listening. What was he listening to?

There was a gentle cooing sound, like a bird. But where was it coming from? Now everyone could hear it.

Burrigan looked at the faces about him, "All right," He said. "So what it it?"

No one answered. How could they? Harper looked at Mandy who seldomly shrugged. Ad for the Doctor, well he might as well not have been there at all, enwrapped in his vast, and ever curious mind.

But Burrigan however still had his wits about him. One of the gauges on the control panel was sending him a message of warning. He looked again at Tedder. "Are you looking after the pressure in the hold?"

"Yes, sir." came the reply.

"Then why has it fallen ten points?"

Tedder looked amazed. "Excuse me?"

"Ten points, Lt. Those things will implode if you leave them like that. I am not losing this ship because you can't do your job right." Now Burrigan's patience was wearing thin. "You will rectify this, Lt." He said. "Because if you fon't I'll have your hide for shoe-leather. Do you read me?"

Tedder read him. He crossed to the pressure controls and adjusted them. The pressure remained the same. "It isn't answering, sir." He said.

"I see that." Burrigan replied. "A malfunction, you think?"

"I'll put the fail-safe on. But there's still no response."

"I see."

"You all could see but what's missing is an explanation. Nothing's infallible." The Doctor commented.

"This is." Burrigan said. "There are so many fail safe stages that the chances of actual breakdown are million to one."

The Doctor remained cool. "That still leaves the one."

And for no good reason a chronometer detached itself from the bulkhead and hurled itself across the room, narrowly missing Mandy. She jumped aside.

Suddenly the air was full of flying objects, like someone turned off the gravity, but they all remained stationary. The commander's desk slid from one side to the other. The Helmsman went down, hit in the head by a flying radio.

"Could it be poltergiests?" Tedder wondered.

No one had any idea.

The Doctor was looking at one of the gauges, it was spinning and the clocks, reversing tim. Was it a time spin? He delt with a hand full of thise in a couple of his life times.

Then the chaos stopped and everyone straightened. There was a silence until Burrigan spoke, "Right," He said, "Get this mess cleared up."

The crew did.

"How's the presure in the hold, Lt?" Burrigan asked.

"Almost back to normal." Tedder replied. "But the indicator isn't holding steady."

"Very well. Do the best you can." Clearly Burrigan recognized that there was no point in blaming other when confronted with the inexplainable.

"Do you have a feeling we're being watched?" Mandy asked the Doctor.

The Doctor nodded. "You feel it too?"

Mandy nodded back.

Harper picked up the chronometer from the ground. He too, paused, feeling a strange sensation of being observed. Perhaps that explained the Doctor's behavior and he picked up on it because his sensed were sharper as a Time Lord. Weirder things have happened. Harper didn't rule it out. He pretty much summed it up to that. But Mandy was a different story. She kept eyeing the Doctor with the deepest concern (she had been since their last trip) when the Doctor wasn't looking.

Harper looked at the Chronometer, shrugging off the feeling. He carried the object over to a side bench and set it down. At that moment the door leading to the hold slid open and a crew member rushed in. "I've seen it. I've seen it." He shouted. Then there came the same bright flash and he was hurled into the air, in writhing agony, to crash, dead on the deck. It reminded him of a scene from Harry Potter, where a girl had touched a cursed object and was hurled into the air, in almost the same manner. But this was reality. There wasn't such things as cursed object, even a curse. Maybe an alien artifact. He shook off the thought. The Doctor was right, maybe he should stop watching too many films. A man was dead.

Burrigan crossed and knelt beside the man, there was no pulse. "Put him to the side." He said gently. Then he addressed the rest of the crew, "I want no panic, men. I know we can't yet explain what's happening but until we do, no purpose will be served by permitting these troubles to divert us from our duty, from making history. I rely upon you as a fine crew, to do precisely that." He turned to Tedder. "Would you please tend to the man? Do whatever you can for him."

"Yes, sir." Tedder gestured to two crew men to help carry the body.

"What is there to do for him?" The Doctor asked. "He's dead."

"I know that Doctor." Burrigan said. "We show respect for the dead. Regardless their place."

The young man looked at him with wonderment as if he didn't get the concept and clearly he was amused.

The Doctor didn't understand their rituals of taking care of the dead with respect. Now that he was further away from humanity, he never really had. Time Lords never had burials. A conciousness of a dead Time Lord was put into the Matrix. The bodies were then burned or locked in stasis, because other races who knew about Time Lord existence would have tore the Universe apart just to get a single cell.

If a Time Lord or Time Lady donated his or her body to the Stasis it could be used for another Time Lord or Time Lady, who had difficult regenerating, to download their conciousnes into. It was like the equvilent to donating a spare body part, like humans do with organ doning. The Doctor found that unpleasant, even in his current state of mind. He would not want to live on that way. Gallifrey had had it's dark history.

And if Gallifrey still had existed, the Law of thirteen regenerations would still be in effect and the Doctor would have had one more go, one last and final body. And if Gallifrey still existed and he died, his conciousness would have been no doubt uploaded to the Matrix. To some Time Lords the Matrix could be heaven or hell. For the Doctor it would be hell.

Tedders two men gently lifted their friend and carried him away.

"What have you been thinking about?" Mandy asked the Doctor. "Your mind's been wondering lately. There must be something going on in that mind of yours."

"Just...stuff. Anyway," He said, taking off his hat and setting it down on the console. "Mysterious deaths to solve."

"How can death excite you?" Mandy had detected a hint of it in his voice.

"It's only natural."

"You wouldn't care what happens to me? If I die?" She studied his face. It wore a blank expression.

He was always dodging her questions. An ounce of him had to care. He was the Doctor. Her heart raced faster than she'd ever known, and as if it could rip right out of her chest and she wouldn't notice. She had caught a faint glimpse, or had she imagined it, it looked like he's being swallowed by something. She knows what it feels like so well, the feeling like suddenly you're a child again,and there's something under your bed, and you get tangled in your sheets during a bad dream. His eyes were hollow but trying to be there, but he's drifting away. _You're losing him, again._ Her mind shouted. Then it quickly vanished and her mind processed that she had imagined it.

He avoided her question, yet inside his mind was screaming, _I have nothing left. Except a hole in my hearts, a black endless pit. I look at her and think of all that I had lost, what I will lose. I wouldn't lose her if I never had her. I push her away, I have nothing left and nothing to lose. But she has and hasn't lost everything yet._

_I'm sinking. What's the point. There's someone just outside my vision just waiting for me. It's dark, pulling at me, sucking me in. And I can't stop it. I'm powerless now. But there are some things I do have control over._

Acting like he had control, and not letting emotions get in the way.

"You're not human but at least you can do is show a bit of decency." She told him.

Burrigan gave no acknowledgment to having over heard. "Call the Aran." He said to the radio operator. "Tell her we are having as of yet, unidentified trouble, which might make us slower because holding course is proving difficult. Ask her to make all possible speed."

The operator got to work at his controls.

Tedder emerged from the side cabin where they had taken the second dead crewman. "Sir, I have to report that the body of Fist Shipman Todd is gone."

Burrigan's eyes were cold. "Gone where?"

"We don't know, sir."

"Then find it. It can't have gone far, can it?"

"No, sit." He addressed the rest of the crew, "Search the ship from top to bottom."

The crewmen made off in various directions. Burrigan ordered for the Doctor and his companions to stay.

* * *

The look on the Doctor's face was that on intent. As the Doctor had observed, the first body, the voices had come back again.

He had tried listening instead of focusing on the body, to see if it was really dead. It couldn't have got up and walked away on it's own. No he was missing something.

His head had been clear for a few minutes, after the second body. Now the voices were back. It had always been quiet in his head since the Time Lords died. Just recently his head became noisy every now and then. He tried blocking them out. Little did he know he was drawing attention to himself, from Mandy, who was worried, and Harper, (well mainly Harper.) Unlike Mandy, Harper noticed he was too quiet, too introspective. Did he know something more than he was admitting to or if he didn't know then suspicions were forming in his mind. Though Harper looked up to the Doctor as a mento he had a certain protective attitude towards the Doctor. Brilliant as he was and vertaintly beyond his comprehension but there were times when his mind went off in different directions while the rest of reality went on it's remorsless straight path.

"He's at it again." Mandy said.

"How long has he been doing that?" Harper asked her. She had been spending more time with him.

"Not long." She lied. "Just recently." She suspected he was hearing the voices again but this prolonged silence was something new.

"I wonder what he's thinking about." If he was thinking at all it seemed he was just spacing, but his eyes were dilated like he was in a deep-set of mind, concentrating.

"No doubt we'll find out sooner or later." Mandy said.

"Aran calling, sir." The radio operator said.

Burrigan switched on his extensions. "Come in, Aran. Commander Burrigan here."

"Hello commander." said a female voice. "Wanfield here."

"Good to hear from you. How's your progress?"

"We're on full boost and tracking you. But there is one problem."

"Only one?"

"It's quite serious. I don't know if you're aware of it. but your course keeps varying. Holding to you is proving difficult."

"We are aware of it. We're quite unable to keep anything steady. I suspect we've got some stowaway on board though why they're causing all this trouble, I can't imagine."

"I wouldn't be too sure about stowaways." The Doctor, emerging from his thoughts. They all looked at him in surprise.

"What else could it be?" Burrigan demanded. This Doctor had been holding his silence practically the whole time, and decided to speak now? Part of Burrigan didn't trust this man's judgment. It wouldn't be, because he was alien could it? Or was it the fact that Burrigan had a reason to believe that he was a mad man?

"I think you're being invaded." The Doctor said.

"Invaded?" Burrigan nearly scoffed. He didn't listen to mad men. "By what, man? This ship is sealed, isn't it? There's no way of traveling through space. So how could anone possibly get in?"

"I wouldn't be too sure." The Doctor repeated. "Next time you're on a shuttle, traveling across a diamond planet you can't set foot on, nothing can get in or out, but oh yes it can." The Doctor then seemed to shiver at his own words. "Tha'll 'ave you rethinkin."

"I will do some rethinking. If I keep getting interrupted." The Commander was close to losing his cool.

"Just a theory." The Doctor said. "And we don't have time to think in term of normal life forms." He shook his head. "No, I'm fairly sure that you're being invaded."

Burrigan surveyed him for a moment before turning to the console. "Did you hear that Aran?"

"We did. I sounds a bit far-fetched to me."

"There had to be a cause."

"Yes, but it could be mechanical. After all..." The voice was cut off by a static sound and then there was an agonized scream, and then silence.

"Aran, Aran, come in." Burrigan spoke into the communicator.

"She's switched off, sir." The operator said.

Burrigan looked at the Doctor purely out of instinct. "Was that her?" By making eye contact with the Doctor, it confirmed that it was. Burrigan walked to the entry was, leaning in the archway. The Doctor went to him.

Whatever the Doctor said to him, the commander, allowed him to regain control. Burrigan headed back to the console as he did so he ordered the operator, "Keep trying to reach her." He turned to the Doctor. Maybe he wasn't as mad as he thought, but he still wouldn't trust him. "I take it you have a theory for this as well?" He asked the Doctor.

"Oh, yes." The Doctor said. "Now you've both been invaded."

"And I repeat, by what?"

"A theory is one things, a guess is another. I'd rather not guess."

Tedder had re-entered, as had most of the crew. "No trace of the body, sir. I'm afraid."

Burrigan said nothing, eyeing the dials, gauges and computer readings on the console. "Keep trying to get the pressure steady in the hold. If one of those jars breaks we'll have more trouble than a few dead bodies. And you," He said to the Helmsman, "do the best you can to hold us on some sort of course."

"I'm still not having much luck, sir."

"Then find some." Burrigan then turned to Mandy. "Would you like to do something useful, young lady?"

"Sure." It would be better than standing around here. She thought.

"Go into the galley and make up all some tea would you? We could all use some."

Normally, Mandy would protest. She didn't like being ordered but as long as it was an excues to explore, she didn't mind. She was starting to love traveling with the Doctor. As she prepared the tea, she began mulling over the circumstances, the Doctor's behavior. Was it because the events of their last travel or was it the voices? He had been distant, like Jenner had said, but more than recently.

Sometimes she doubted his ability. She didn't question his intelligence, far from it. But he could be erratic in his judgment. Some of the places and situations he landed them in, left a lot to be desired but a piece of mind was a short supply. And look where now, on a space ship, in outer space, with everything going mad. She still wasn't used to it. Sometimes the Doctor was tough to take. There was also the question about Harper, where he stood. She had never spoken to him before the Doctor came and he finally seemed to notice her. Sure she liked Harper but he too had a tendency to dismount on both sides of the fence and go off in all directions. Herper went along with the Doctor, even jumped into the most extreme of the Doctor's ideas and aided him without question. But that behavior could one day be proved fatal. In her retrospect, he was just as bad as the Doctor. Why was Harper so eager to throw himself into things? Why did he jump on the Doctor's every command? She loved life, and she would go to great lengths to hold onto it.

Harper on the other hand, he was a good companion she could hope for. She had her own faults, not least a love for the Doctor. All she could do was face up to everything as he and the Doctor did.

She looked up at the boiling vat of water, secured to the bulkhead. The bands and screw looked as if they were unscrewing themselves. She blinked her eyes, a few times. The vat stayed put, the screws tight, bands still in place.

Harper appeared in the Galley, making Mandy jump. "What's with you?"

They heard a sound that was coming from behind her. The vat slightly tilted, only spilling a small puddle of water on the floor. With his strong limber arm Harper had moved her out of the way in time. She kept her eyes on the vat though it had ceased moving. "I just about had enough of this." She said.

"Me too." Harper agreed. "I don't want to be here any longer than you do. But how do we get out?"

"The Doctor." She suggested. Mandy was obviously shaken. He'd have to disobey the Doctor's orders just this once.

"He won't do it. His curiosity always gets the better of him." He said.

"Couldn't we persuade him?"

"How? You know how he is, "Everything for scientific investigation. Nothing could take him away from this. Unless...I'll stay here and you go back to the others, go get the Doctor and tell him I'm in some sort of trouble."

"Why me?" Mandy asked.

"Because you're female and you have legs. Like that song goes.." He was returned a hard glare. "He'll listen to you." He added seriously.

She set off and before long, she was returning to the Galley with the Doctor.

"What sort of trouble is he in?" The Doctor asked.

"It's very simple, really." Mandy said levely. "We want to leave."

"Leave?" He asked as if not understanding the meaning.

"Yes, as in leave this ship. It's too dangerous."

"Do you know, I recall specifically telling you I couldn't 100% guarantee your safety. That our little trips I take you on wouldn't be 100% safe. And you want to leave?"

"I know..."

"Just because it's too dangerous?" He was mocking her. "Let me tell you something, you're only passengers and that's all you'll ever be. And I say when we leave."

"I thought you'd say that." Harper came out of his hiding place, where he had been crouching. He punched the Doctor as hard as he could, but not too hard, just enough force to fell him unconscious. Immediately he felt guilty. He wasn't looking forward to the Doctor's reaction when he woke up.

"What the hell did you do that for?" Mandy shouted at him.

"Well, he wasn't going to come quietly, was he?"

After they get him into the TARDIS, the Doctor came 'round after a short while. "What happened?" He asked as he sat up. "Did someone hit me?"

"Sorry, that was me." Harper said, truly apologetic.

"It was the only way we were going to get you to leave." Mandy said.

"We can't leave."

"And why's that?" Harper wanted to know what his excuse was this time.

"This isn't supposed to happen." He got up and started pacing. "I have to make sure this ship stays on course or at least doesn't crash. They're supposed to be the first humans to Venus. I can't leave until I fix it." He stepped, eyeing both of them cooly, arms crossed behind his back. "Are you going to let me stay or not?" He might as well have said, "I'd like to see you try and stop me."

Mandy was brave enough to speak up. Harper admired that. "If only you stop referring us to passengers." She said.

"You know I can't do that." Was the Doctor's reply. He would never let anyone close to him again. They were there strictly for company and for his purposes. He was starting to get tired of their company. A part of him was beginning to have doubts. But he needed them. "Who needs them." That part of him was saying. "We were doing fine on our own." But he feared being alone because of what he became when he was alone. Another part of him, his reasoning side, did need them. For if he didn't he'd lose his grip on reality and what remained of his sanity.

They filed out of the TARDIS, walking down the corridor in silence. Mandy went back to the Galley.

* * *

The Doctor was back in the control room, standing beside Burrigan at the controls. "Should you be watching your men?" It wasn't a question, it was a suggestion.

"I always do." Burrgan answered. "That's my job."

"Then I suggest you keep doing it." said the Doctor, watching the crew. Then turned his gaze back to the commander, "Some of them are looking monotonous."

"Doctor," Burrigan began, "if you look carefully at me you will notice I carry a revolver."

"It would be difficult not to notice." The Doctor said, not breaking eye contact with Burrigan.

"Well, it's there for a purpose. There are many strains in outer-space work and sometimes people give way beneath it. The first one that does will be shot...by me."

"I just thought I'd mention the fact." The Doctor said. The commander hadn't need to be touchy about it. Humans were alway a bit touchy.

"And I thank you." The Doctor had reminded him that above all this chaos Burrigan still held power as Commander. Such power from a Captain would scare most. The Doctor wasn't one of them. "Perhaps now you'd let me know, why you don't seem to be afraid."

"Ah," The Doctor waved the question aside. "I have too much to interest me. There's no time for fear." He smiled at Burrigan, "Panic, yes. Fear, no. " Truth was he was afraid, for an entirely different reason. The only thing he knew about himself so far was that he hated and feared himself. He didn't like his new self at all. He felt he should have more control and he didn't know what he was capable of.

Burrigan returned the smile. "I doubt I'll ever see either in you. You look to me like a born survivor."

The Doctor was speechless for a moment. "Sometimes more than most." He finally said. "Nonetheless...I'd keep an eye on those men."

"I take your point." Burrigan checked his watch. "Your young female friend seems to be taking a long time."

"I'd better go see what's keeping her." The Doctor said.

Mandy prepared the tea. A sound above her made her freeze. She stared in horror as a bolt from the vat sprang free and then another. The vat began to tilt. Mandy tried to move out of the way but unseen hands seemed to hold her there. The vat tilted even further and she could see the steam beginning to release itself from the top.

The Doctor was about to leave for the Galley but at that moment the speakers came into life. "Aran calling Medusa. Come in please."

"Medusa here." Burrigan replied. "Are you alright, commander?"

"Yes. Just some interference. Bad connection. Could have been radio interference and that horrible screeching music coming through."

"It sounded as though you were in trouble."

"Not so. I assure you. Everything's alright."

Burrigan still had his doubts. "I'll put you on visual if you don't mind."

"By all means, go ahead."

Burrigan nodded to the operator. The operator flicked several switches. On to one of the screens came a picture of Commander Wanfield. Her face was cheerful. "Am I clear?"

"Yes, you're clear."

"And you're satisfied that all's well here?"

"Yes."

"Good. We're still making all speed and will contact you again soon. Out." Wanfield moved away from the screen and the operator flicked off the visual.

"I wonder what could have caused the interference." Burrugan said to the Doctor.

"I wonder." The Doctor replied. "I'll go and see what's keeping Mandy."

What was keeping Mandy was invisible hands, holding her in place, keeping her from moving. The vat dangerously close to spilling over.

The Doctor came in, leapt forward, knowing that whatever was holding her must have a corporeal form. His hands touched something, grasped and visiously yanked. There was a shrill noise of pain that was an uched and unmistakable sound of screaming. The Doctor didn't care the he was hurting it. His reage knew no bounds. A human was in danger and that was something he did not tolerate. He snatched and pulled it away from her with a strength he didn't know he possessed.

Then he grabbed her around the waist and gave a mighty tug. They staggered across the Galley and came to a halt against the bulkhead, both out of breath.

The last bolt sprang free. The vat tilted outwards and it's boiling contents cascaded onto the deck exactly where Mandy had been standing. "I'd have been scolded to death." She gasped.

"You couldn't have come closer, could you?" The Doctor scolded, still panting with excursion.

"Something was holding me." Mandy said.

The Doctor surveyed the steam clouded Galley, taking Mandy by the elbow. "I think we ought to get out of here." He said. "Can you manage?" He scanned her face, trying to read the expression in her eyes. Mandy adverted his eyes, boring into hers as she found something unrecognizable there.

"Yes." She murmured. "Of course." Her side hurt a little from were he yanked her. No doubt there'd be a bruise there, that would be the least of their worries. "I haven't thanked you for saving me."

"I suppose I should have left you there?" His voice told her that he didn't need to be thanked. "Come on."

They made their way out.

* * *

Harper was helping crewman Jacobson, as Burrigan had ordered him, check out the emergancy-steering system. As they headed toward the room, Jacobson tripped and went sprawling. He sat up, rubbing his shoulder that had made contact with the deck. "What the hell was that?"

"I have no idea." Harper moved forward to help him.

A lever wretched itself from the bulkhead and came hurling toward Harper. It was his soldier re-flexes that saved him. It missed by no more than a fraction from his head.

Jacobson shouted with pain and passed out, an enormous gash across his forehead.

Harper struggled to get to him but he might have well had tried to make his way through a sand storm. It was mere moments before he too received a stunning blow to the head and he fell to the ground, unconscious.

The Doctor, meanwhile helped Mandy back to the control room, where he told Burrigan what had happened.

Burrigan only glanced at Mandy to make sure she was alright. He rounded on Tedder. "How's out course, Lt?"

Tedder looked at the Helmsman's read out. "Still varying, sir."

"And the pressure in the hold?"

"The same, sir."

"Then keep trying to get both back to normal."

There was a silence as Tedder looked at the crew, then back at the Commander. "There is one thing I've noticed."

"And what's that, Lt?"

"For as long as you try to hold this ship on course, we get all this trouble."

"So?"

"So, why don't we stop trying? That way we can find out what's required by whatever it is and be left in peace."

"Are you suggesting that I surrender my command?"

"I'm suggesting, sir, that we can't fight what we can't see."

"Then I've got some information for you, mister. I command this ship and I make all the decisions concerning it. Your opinion is usually what I pay attention to. But this time it isn't worth the breath you wasted on. We go on, Let. The Venus Colony is depending on us and beside their troubles ours are nothing. Do I make myself clear?"

"Yes, sir. Tedder replied slowly.

"Then get the men about their duties."

Tedder obyed, clearly unhappy.

Burrigan moved across to the Doctor. "From what you say, you're a man of some experience, Doctor?"

"You could say that." The Doctor replied.

"Then what'd you make of all this?"

"Only that the few times I've encountered it, the ships concerned have never been heard from again. I say that for your ears only. It's not the sort of thing I'd tell your men."

"I intend not to."

At that moment, Harper staggered in, bruised and bleeding, having left Jacobson for dead. His vision was blurred, and his head was spinning from the several blows it had received.

Mandy rushed to his side to help him sit into the command Chair and examined him the best she could. "What happened?"

Harper's news was freeted with silence. What else could be said? Any one of them could be next.

But Tedder was doubting his senses. "I've read a thing or two about poltergiests." He said.

"We don't want to hear it." Burrigan said.

"But we should." Tedder persisted. "The literature on it is quite extensive. And the burden of it is that poltergiests nearly always arrive through the person of a female." He was addressing the crew, as well as Burrigan. "Now to the best of my knowledge, there's only one female aboard this ship and no one had the faintest idea where she came from."

"Are you acussing me of causing all this?" Mandy demanded.

"I'm simply passing on what I've read." Tedder carefully replied.

"You're insane." The Doctor observed. "I said this ship was being invaded and I meant it."

"But by what?" Tedder demanded. "By something she's brought with her."

"I'm not listening to this nonsense." Mandy snapped. "The Doctor's right. You are insane."

"Oh, it's quite normal." The Doctor said, cheerfully. "Whenever there's trouble it's only human nature to seek a scapegoat."

"And I'm not going to be it." Mandy said heatedly. "I'm not standing here listening to rubbish like this."

"No, you're not." Burrigan sai. "I suggest you take your friend to sick bay and tend to his wound." He turned to Tedder. "And you, Lt, will keep your idiotic theories to yourself. I do not permit anyone to be insulted in my presence, and at least of all, on my ship. Now get on with your duties."

Tedder avoided the Commander's gaze but did what he was ordered.

Mandy carefully helped Harper to his feet and led him to sick bay. She located the first aid box and was moving back to where she seated him, it was torn from her grasp and hurled across the cabin. She stared, dazedly at the Captain, then went to retrieve it. No sooner, the same thing happened again.

Whatever it was had no intention of permitting the Captain to be treated. Not that it mattered to Harper, for his head had cleared by now and his wounds were nothing to bother him seriously. "Just leave it, Mandy." He said. "It doesn't matter."

"It does to me." She said. "I think I'm going mad."

"Not you." Harper said. "You're always too much in control of yourself."

"Perhaps it's possible that Lt. was sort of right. Maybe I bring a sort of bas luck."

This was not like Mandy at all. Harper had no intention of sitting idly be while she lost spirit. He got to his feet. "Cut the crap, Amanda." That made her look at him wide eyed. Having caught her attention, he spoke with words to give her confidence. "These incidence have happening in places you've never been and to people you don't know. It all started when that meteorite hit us. Were you to blame for that?" She hopelessly shrugged. "The Doctor would know. We better get back."

When they got to the control room the atmosphere was tense. "I said you will keep trying to hold course, Lt." Burrigan was saying.

"And I'm telling you that for as long as we do that this trouble will continue." Tedder argued. "The only sensible thing to do."

"That isn't in my nature."

"It isn't in mine either. But I don't believe in going to the stake against the inevitable."

Tedder was deliberately not using the obligatory, sir, in addressing his Commanding officer. To Harper that wasn't a good omen. Nor was the fact that most of the crew had grouped behind Tedder.

The Doctor was staring at Tedder as though reading his mind, which he probably was. "I would have though at a time like this, discipline and unity were vital." The Doctor observed.

Tedder rounded on him. "Would you, really?" He asked. "A sort of United we stand, divided we fall, approach is it? Well it occurs to me that with you two aboard, it seems to me we don't stand a chance."

"I'd remind you that I'm Commander and will be addressed as such." Burrigan said.

Tedder glanced about to make sure the crew were with him.

They were.

He returned his attention to Burrigan. "Not any more, you aren't."

"Do you know what you're saying, Lt?"

"Yes, I do and I'm sorry about it. But I consider you to be so stubborn, you're no longer fit to be in command. I therefore formally ask you to relinquish you of your office."

Burrigan was rigid with offended fury. "This is mutiny. I'll have you Court Marshalled for this."

"Oh, I doubt it." Tedder produced a pistol from his holster, pointing it at the Commander. "This says I'm in command."

But Burrigan and Harper were both quick to draw their guns.

Taking the advantage of being nearest to Tedder, the Doctor sprang forward and knocked the Lt's gun out of his hand and kicked it aside.

The Doctor looked at the Commander and the Captain, their guns still aimed at Tedder. "Put your guns way." The Doctor ordered. "Put them away, now."

"I'd do as the Doctor says." Tedder was now recovered from the Doctor's attack.

"And surrender to you?" Burrigan cocked back the hammer of his gun. "not a chance."

"Then what do you suggest?" Tedder asked Burrigan.

""You have two guns pointed at you, you're out numbered, Lt. I suggest you stop this foolishness." Burrigan demanded.

Tedder raised an eyebrow, "And go through all that trouble again? You're a stubborn man. But this time, you loose."

Tedder's followed drew weapons of their own.

"I suggest a strategic withdrawal." Harper murmured to Burrigan. "That way we might stay alive."

The Commander nodded. "For the moment this ship is in your hands." He said to Tedder. "We're going to leave you to it and see what mess you can make of this. And once word of warning, if anyone attempts to fire at us, the first dead man will be you."

Tedder paled. "Hold, your fire." He said to his supporters. "They can't harm us now."

"No." Burrigan said. "That'll come later.

"Much later." Tedder said. "I take it you're leaving us now?"

Burrigan indicated the door leading to the hold, and the Doctor and his companions blacked toward it, guns trained on them. Burrigan waited till all three of them were inside and pulled the door closed behind them. "We'll go to the hold." He said, his voice lowered to a whisper.

"And then what?" Harper asked.

"I'll need some time to think. I never had a mutiny before. I'm not putting up with it."

"We also might have to wait and see what materializes." The Doctor said. "All this can't have been for nothing." He thought to himself a moment. "No. Something's out to take over this ship and it might prove to be more than the Lt. bargained for." He thought of going back to the TARDIS and let everything here take it's course. A part of him told him, no. He had to stay here. Something was trying to prevent this ship form reaching Venus.

He was answering himself. They were right here. He could ask them and have them answer. It was like he was having a conversation with someone, only he could hear in his head. Was it the voices? Mandy didn't look into it more than she needed to.

* * *

"Gentlemen," Tedder said, addressing the crew, "We're confronted here with something we don't understand. But it's been responsible for three deaths. I want no more and I'm sure you don't. I believe we can save ourselves and the ship by simply co-operating with whatever it is. Does anyone agree?"

No one did. Then Tedder raised his head, as if talking to air, "We are willing to help you. Tell us what you want."

The strange cooing sound came again, gentle but somehow not as chilling as what came through the door.

It was the first dead man, Todd.

This was beyond Tedder's comprehension. "But how? Why?"

"You're not to ask questions." Todd said. "And I'm the only one who tells you what to do." He turned to the crew. "Get to your stations."

"Just a minute." Tedder objected. "I'm not aware that a member of the crew is permitted to give orders."

"Is that right?" Todd stepped toward Tedder.

Tedder lunged for his gun.

"Don't bother." Todd said. "You can't shoot me. And it won't make a shred of difference. Just do as I say and obey orders.

Tedder straightened. "Very well."

"There's a sensible man." Todd smiled.

"Aran, calling." Came a voice from the speaker. "Come in, please. Aran, calling."

"Answer it." Todd ordered.

"And let you take her over as well?" Tedder asked. "It might be that we'll suffer but we won't wish it upon others."

"Which isn't necessarily the case." Todd said. "For all you know, the Aran might be the only way out of the fix you're in."

"But I doubt it." Tedder said. "You're out to take her over."

Todd sighed. "Then I'll tell you how to find out. Answer the Aran, tell her all is well and bring her in. And I'll tell you something else. If you don't, you'll regret it and as will your men."

Tedder was beaten and knew it. How do you argue with a dead man and a powerful one at that? Watched by the crew, he crossed to the console.

"Now, who's being clever." Todd smiled again.

* * *

The Doctor and his companions were among the jars of leechen. As usual they swayed hungrily. The situation they were in was not of importance. What was important was that none of them had the faintest idea of Tedder's situation. But Tedder's intent of surrendering the ship, they knew about and it wasn't setting well with Burrigan. "We'll try the emergency steering." Burrigan said.

"That's been tried." Mandy stated. "And we all know what happened after that."

Burrigan was desperate. "Then we'll try again."

"I wouldn't." The Doctor said. "I don't think they'll permit it."

"Am I supposed to stand here, helpless while my ship is taken from beneath me?"

"For the time being, yes." The Doctor's voice was quiet. Burrigan stood in frustration.

"Hey, look over there." Mandy suddenly called. They all turned to where she was pointing, and there stood a being no more than over a meter tall. It wore a green outfit and held a device apparently made of shreds of wire. "aren't you cute." Mandy said. She bent over and moved toward it. "It's alright, we're not going to hurt you."

"Stay back!" The Doctor warned, "Back from it, back."

But it was too late. The being moved like lightning. Burrigan reached for his gun.

"Don't Commander. That thing can move faster than you can." They waited to see what it would do. It gave them a smile, then turned it's weapon in the direction of the jars.

"No." Burrigan shouted. "You don't know what your'e doing."

There was a flash from the tiny weapon and a shattering of glass as the jar broke. immediately the leechen began to fumble their way outwards.

Clipped to the bulkhead was a row of murderous looking machetes. Harper jumped forward, grabbed on and started slashing at the Leechen. The tiny figure merely watched, smiling as he fought the battle in which there was no option. Mandy and the Doctor stepped into help. But it was effortless, though the leechen shrieked, it seemed to be multiplying.

"You're wasting your time." Burrigan called. "It'll grow more quickly than you can chop it."

Harper turned to him, "That's not possible, is it?"

"The more you attack it, the faster it grows." Burrigan said.

"But we can't stand here helpless." Mandy protested.

"You have no choice. Eventually it'll cover the entire ship."

Harper looked in puzzlement towards the Doctor. He only shrugged, just as puzzled. This was something he had not encountered before. The Captain decided that the Commander had no reason to lie. They were as helpless as Mandy said.

The tiny humanoid giggled and vanished, where or how, who knew. The Doctor ambled off, mentioning he was going to find something. He wasn't pacific.

The Leechen continued to reach out, growing visibly faster.

* * *

In the control room, more of the creatures and dead men had now taken complete charge of the crew. While the dead men gave orders, the impish creatures toyed with the crew, prodding them with their weapons. They giggled among themselves, clearly enjoying the distress they were causing.

In the hold, the Doctor returned to the others, "The Valkroyd can't have have jumped through space without a vessel of some sort. There has to be a craft. I'd like to find it."

"And how do we do that?" Burrigan asked.

"By chopping through until we find something. If all four of us go at it. We should get somewhere."

Mandy and Harper knew the Doctor sufficiently well to abide by his suggestions. Burrigan too, saw nothing to object to. So they all hacked their way in the direction he indicated. It was hard work, despite the sweat on their brows, they kept at it.

The strange mulling sound it made as they cut into was far from pleasant. It was endlessly reaching out toward them.

The Doctor called out, "Found it." His hand was raised in the air. He held up a metallic cylinder some two meters in diameter. He scanned it as the others made their way over to him. "As I thought."

It looked like a craft of some sort, Harper had to admit. But what sort? And where had it come from? Harper voiced his questions.

"The Valkroyd," The Doctor began to explain, "They travel through space in this vessel. Then transmute into anything they come across which takes their fancy...in this case, us."

"But why?" Mandy demanded.

The Doctor pondered a moment, staring at his sonic screwdriver. "Parasites upon life itself. Your basic inspiration of omens, fairies, tricksters, all makers of mischief. The Valkroyd are mischievous. They have to wreck havoc. Disruption and misery. Seems to be their aim. Imagine, ends to themselves, needing no justification."

Harper had difficulty grasping this, "You mean they have no morals, whatsoever?"

"Not in any sense we understand. The best way to look at it is to think of a black hole, which is negative energy, not simply an absence of it. Anything we consider good, they see as bad. And the reverse."

Burrigan was baffled. "And they can materialize wherever they wish?"

"Hmm." The Doctor thought and nodded. "First they did inside the meteorite."

Mandy stifled her giggle. The word was hard from him to pronounce because of his accent. The Doctor glanced at her sideways. "Sorry." She apologized.

"This isn't a lecture, which you can interupt." He was scolding her but he was more embarrassed.

Mandy's stifled laugh had started to turn into a fit of giggles. "I'm sorry." She said again, her eyes watering. She hiccupped and held her breath. Once they subsided she told him to go on.

"They possibly materialized inside the met'r...meteor." He played with the word but then gave up, frustrated. "You know, the big chunk of rock that breaks off from other chunks of rock, then they headed for you and did the same."

Burrigan stared in disbelief. "You meant that thing came through the hull of my ship as if it didn't exist?"

"precisely. My ship did."

They all started at the cylinder, at the same time, giving an ocassional chop to keep the Leechen at bay.

"It wreaks of evil." Harper said.

"It certainly does." The Doctor agreed.

"It's only a piece of metal." Burrigan said.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "And a house is only made of bricks or wood. Have you ever walked into an empty house and feel like you're not welcome?"

"I have." Mandy said. "It's like the house doesn't want you there."

"Well what do we do about this thing?" Burrigan wanted to know, indicating the miniature ship.

"Nothing." The Doctor replied. "We watch." He reached out to touch it in his out stretched palm. immediately it was gone. He passed his hand through the space where it had been. "It's got a safety device rigged. It sensed what I was trying to do. Only it's owners are allowed to open it."

"But where's it go?" Harper wondered.

"Probably outside."

"Amazing." Mandy said. She sliced a tendril that was getting close. "But the leechen's closing in again."

* * *

In the control room things were going no better. The Valkroyd were still taking pleasure in pestering everyone to the point where it was difficult for the men to even attempt what they were ordered. But still they were sticking to their posts.

The Aran came through clearly on the radio, "Aran here. Have you tracked and closing. Over."

Tedder leapt for the microphone, determined to warn the Aran. But it was hopeless. In a flash of a second, a group of Valkroyd pushed him to the deck.

"You were warned." Todd said. "Don't try it again." He crossed to the console and surveyed the instruments. He spoke with the Aran, "We have you on the screen Aran. We'll prepare to receive you."

"Thank you. Normal docking procedure I take it?"

"All as usual. Out." He turned from the console and smiled widely at everyone. "Well, we'll soon have more company. Won't that be nice?" No one spoke. "Swing out the grapples." He ordered.

There was a cry of horror as one of the crew men opened his control panel and a leechen lashed out from it, nearly grabbing him. He jumped away. Others found the same. The leechen began to creep inwards from every nook and cranny. The men backed from the threat but were ordered to presume their positions. They had no choice. Soon the Aran was hovering along side the Medusa.

WIthin the hold, the leechen pressed even closer.

"Where's the Doctor?" Mandy asked. "Where's the commander?" She heaved the machete at a leechen tendril. Harper was keeping at it, without stopping. Here he was breaking his back, he almost acidly retorted that the Doctor had probably gone off on one of his exploratory tours, when she saw what sharpened her tone.

"We're cut off." Harper exclaimed, seeing that the leechen had corned them both.

"But where did they go?"

"Probably to find out what else we could do, rather than surrender?"

"Maybe." Mandy said grimly. "But for the moment I can only see one way this turns out."

Harper nodded, understanding. They both hefted their machetes and started chopping again. All efforts were wasted. As fast as they cut it, it grew even more quickly. Soon they were confronted with a solid wall, formed by the leechen. They were forced to retreat, calling for the Doctor but there was no answer.

What they didn't see was two dead men behind them. Each carried a club, felling both Mandy at Harper at the same time.

WHen Harper came to he found that he and Mandy had been tied together, back to back. Two of the dead men had knocked them unconscious. A Valkroyd stood beside them. It smiled once it saw they were both both awake and let out a cooing sound. The dead men seemed to respond to it, as they forced the two of them to their feet.

"What are you doing?" Mandy demanded.

"Just making you a little more comfortable." The man holding her said. "We want you to enjoy yourselves."

"Like I enjoy being tied to this idiot." Mandy said.

"Thanks." Harper said, offended by Mandy's statement. They were led closer to the leechen.

* * *

The Aran had locked on, it's walkway had been connected. Tedder and his men waited. The leechen crept it's way round the control room, bringing with it, the threat of consuming the oxygen.

* * *

In the hold, the Doctor called for the Captain and Mandy. A wall of tendrils withered before him and Burrigan.

"Why can't we hear them?" Burrigan asked.

"Because it's created, more or less, a solid barrier between us." The Doctor answered. "Now sound will get through tha."

"I don't know why I followed you." Burrigan grumbled. "I thought you were intelligent."

"I am." The Doctor's voice became high pitched for a second. "We'll find them. I think."

They both stared at the wall. The Doctor scanned it with his eyes as it trying to find a weak spot.

Burrigan thought it was easier said than done. "The question is how?.

How indeed.

* * *

In the control room the door from the Aran at last opened. In strode Commander Wanfield, pink and cheerful. "Good day all. Everything going well?"

"No." Shouted Tedder. "Get back aboard your ship."

"Why?"

"We're in trouble. More than you could even think of..."

The Aran Commander surveyed him blankly. "Oh, I wouldn't say that. In fact, I'd go as far as to say you're in more trouble than 'you' think." She turned to the Valkroyd near Tedder. "Crew of the Aran taken under control. everything now under your command." She addressed Todd, "I await your orders."

More Valkroyd came through the door which she had entered.

* * *

In the hold, the Doctor was standing impossibly still.

It was making Burrigan irritable. "Well you aren't achieving much, are you? Put that marvellous brain of yours to work, why don't you?"

"I am." The Doctor replied. "I recall you said something about the leechen not being able to grow if deprived of oxygen."

"You do? So what?"

The Doctor indicated the implements fastened to the bulkhead. "Are they fire-extinguishers?"

"Yes. What the hell do you think they are, under arm sprays?"

"Keep your levi'y for lat'a." The DOctor said. "What I want to know is, are they for putting out fires from the lack of oxygen?"

Burrigan looked briefly perplexed. "Yes?"

"Then use your head and get to work. " The Doctor snatched one of the fire-extinguishers from it's clip, punched the cap and started spraying the leechen.

The leechen cowered, then folded, no longer able to find the oxygen essential to it's breeding. Burrigan quickly joined the Doctor. They cleared a path, stepped forward, walking over the silenced plants.

They found Mandy and Harper, freeing them of their bonds and helped them up.

Mandy gave the Doctor a dour look. "Traveling with you is beginning to loose it's chram." She said.

The Doctor looked at her with what any other person would have, total innocence. But in the Doctor it was completely unconvincing. "Why is that?"

"It's just one thing after another." What she meant was he was all over the place. She couldn't decipher what part of him was his actual personality or if he was just putting on a show.

"Oh, surely not." He said. "Who could wish for a fuller life? Consider wha' you'll have to look back on. Won't that be something to tell the grandkids."

Mandy pulled a face, rolling her eyes in annoyance.

"Well, we're all free." Harper said. "But what do we do now?"

"We surrender." The Doctor said.

"What?" Mandy said startled.

"It's the last thing I want to do, believe me." Burrigan told her. "the foam will soon dissipate and this hold will be solid with leechen."

"absolutely right." The Doctor agreed.

They made their way back to the control room, where the Valkroyd awaited. Behind them the leechen was starting to stir and in the control room was creeping in. All they received was dour looks from the dead men and glee from the Valkroyd.

"Venus calling." Came from the speakers. "We can't last much longer. We've reached the bottom of our food supply. You're our only hope."

The Aran Commander switched on the microphone, "All set now, Venus. We'll be with you in no time. Just hold out."

"Thank you, Commander. We'll do just that."

Wanfield turned from the console and towards Tedder, indicating the Doctor and Burrigan, she said, "Tie up those two." This was done. "Now, put them over there." She said, and they were hauled to the doorway where the leechen would reach them in no time. But ut was not done too quickly that the Doctor did not have a chance to see the ship's position and course. As Tedder placed him where he had been told he whispered, "Steer eight degrees to port."

The Lt. looked at him in some puzzlement but Burrigan understood. "Do it, Lt." He said. "And lock the control's while you're at it."

The leechen reached their legs and wrapped about them.

Tedder altered the course while everyone's attention was elsewhere. Harper observed this, thinking the Doctor was up to no good again. All they could do was wait. It was bad enough that they were in the power of the Valkroyd but the thought of the Venus colony also being ruled by them was intolerable. Suddenly there was a planet directly ahead of the ship and coming closer by the second.

Tedder snatched up an iron bar and smashed it down on the steering controls. immediately he was hit by bolts from the Valkroyd's guns and fell to the deck. The Aran Commander leapt forward and wrenched at the helm to no avail. "It's locked." She shouted. "We can't change course." She turned to one of the dead men. "Get down to the emergence steering." She commanded. "Bring the ship about."

"You'll never get through the leechen." Tedder said through gritted teeth. "You've lost this one."

The Aran Commander gave him a murderous look, yet the infliction of further pain upon the Lt. would serve no purpose.

The screens displayed the planet hurling toward then. The Valkroyd grouped together against the bulkhead, concerned now for their own safety. They cooed and then were gone. Briefly the 'dead men." looked up as if waking up. Then they hit. Except they didn't. There was a moment of total silence. The screen showing nothing but the distant stars. Disbelief filled the air. Then the the Doctor grinned at Burrigan. "We were right, weren't we."

"More like guess work. And I was only followed along."

The Doctor looked towards Harper. "Are you going to get us out of this or just sit and enjoy the show?"

Several of the crew helped Harper cut the leechen away. For safe measure Harper sprayed it with the fire-extinguisher. "What happened to the planet?" He asked.

"Wasn't there." The Doctor said. "We're in a space warp zone." Harper and everyone else were still puzzled. "That planet is actually light years away. What you were seeing was just an image."

Burrigan crossed to Tedder and helped him to his feet. "Are you all right, Lt?"

"Yes, thank you, sir. But still guilty of mutiny."

"Not so." Burrigan said. "You made what you thought was the best decision. Now forget about it. We should move on to Venus."

Mandy looked around at the 'dead men." whom the Doctor explained that they were never actually dead at all, just possessed by the Valkroyd. But that didn't get him out of the fact he acted heartless when they had apparently been killed. She thought it wise not to bring it up. There was one more thing at hand."What about the leechen? It's still spreading."

"I think I can take care of that." The Doctor said. He turned to Burrigan, "Can you empty this ship of oxygen, Commander?"

"I can. But what about us?"

"Logically you'd have space suits."

"Logically."

"Deprived of oxygen, the leechen are as good as dead. So you can use the emergency steering and still reach Venus in time. Clear?"

"Of course."

"And when our breathing tanks need replenishing we can refill from my ship." The Aran Commander said, also having returned to normal after being taken over by the Valkroyd.

The Commanders and the crew were full of thanks to the three of them. The Doctor was impatient to be on his way.

Led by a group of men, lashing a path clear with fire-estinguishers, the Doctor, Mandy, and Harper made their way back to the TARDIS.

Mandy and Harper already gone inside.

"I know you probably think that you don't deserve our thanks but we owe it all to you." Burrigan said. "What strikes me, is that all through my years as a commanding officer, I've heard a lot about alien races. None of which were humanoid. I never thought they could be quite similar to us." Then Burrigan said. "And I took notice. You're not human." Burrigan put up a hand to interrupt the Doctor. "How did I know? It was pretty much the way you reacted to the dead bodies earlier. And the conversation with your friend. Either that or I thought you were mad."

"Can't I be both?"

Burrigan smiled. "Now I don't know if you're joking."

"That would be the madness talkin." The Doctor shook Burrigan's hand, returning the smile.

"I don't think you're mad. Just...not familiar with humanity."

The Doctor's smile fell. Not familiar with humanity?

"Now, dear boy," Burrigan continued. "take what you learned here wisely, don't have them do what you wouldn't." He gave a quick glance at the TARDIS. "And not all of us are as kind as me and your two friends."

"Dun' I know it." The Doctor absently fished around in his pocket for the TARDIS key.

"Remember that, and you'll do just fine." Burrigan patted the Doctor's shoulder. As he walked away, he gave the Doctor a wave and one last smile, "Bye, bye, now."

Once inside the TARDIS, Harper said to him, "That was close."

"Very." Mandy added, cheerfully. Her adrenaline was now on high, waiting for whatever adventure lie ahead of them.

The Doctor operated the controls and once again they were off. "You're both too nervous." The Doctor said. "You really must learn to put all these things down to experience."

* * *

**AN: The Doctor is a little messed up throughout. But the ending. What do you think? Did you catch the important bit? I'll throw you a hint, the Doctor not being familiar with humanity" is something you need to pay attention to. It will be mentioned again somewhere down the line, as it is one of the major themes for this series. **


	11. The Power of a Good Man

James Macpherson was the estranged son of Anna Stewart Macpherson, the estranged daughter of the late Alistor Gordon Lethbridge Stewart. Mac had become a Brigadier just like his grandfather. But Mac hadn't always been heading down that path. He had been a delinquent in his youth. Until a stranger one day knocked on his door and offered him a job in security for his business, anomalies started to appear. Cross photonics were investigating them. His grandfather had been proud of him. The late Brigadier had died from Cancer five years later. Mac was twenty-five. Mac had always been there for him, despite his mother's wished that he'd stay away from him. Alistor used to tell him stories of the Doctor when he was growing up. Anna thought it rubbish and nothing but ramblings of an old man. In truth The Brigadier shared the stories with his younger daughter Kate. The reason why he did not share them with Anna was because he believed she could not keep the stories a secret. And he was right. She was the biggest gossip. That had sparked her jealousy of Kate and caused strain with her father. A few weeks before his grandfather died, he gave Mac a file, telling him to burn it once he finished.

The things he had seen in recent months, portals opening to different times,strange creatures coming through, he had no reason to doubt his grandfather's stories about a mysterious man in a blue box. The file contained all he needed to know about the Doctor. After he read it, he proceeded his Grandfather's wishes. It was a cool damp morning. Mac had driven out to an abandoned warehouse. He placed the file in trash bin and set it a flame. Then he got the call. It was Nurse Hennypenny, though his Grandfather died a few weeks ago. She told him that the Doctor had just called for his grandfather.

"Did he leave a message?" Mac asked, a part of him was hopeful.

"No, no message."

Mac hung up, staring into the flames, burning within the barrel.

* * *

They had arrived back at UNIT the same day the had left in the TARDIS, only a few hours ahead. Mandy felt like she had jet lag...or time lag. They all went about their own business. The next few days were dull without the Doctor. Mandy headed down to his office. She hadn't seen him in days. She wondered what he was doing, hauled up in his TARDIS, all alone. Harper also seemed to have had the same thing in mind, as he entered the room soon after she did. Briefly they caught eye contact.

Their eyes both read, "What are you doing here?"

"What do you think he's doing in there?" Mandy spoke first. "I haven't seen him in days."

"Probably playing around." Harper said, crossing his arms. "You know since he's not playing around with me."

"Or me." "He wouldn't do that to you. At least you didn't walk straight into the pool, which was where your bedroom was supposed to be. He switched the rooms around."

"I'm sure he didn't mean it on purpose. He probably acidently switched them." She said shrugging. "We better get out of her before the Old Man catches us."

"The old man?"

"That's what I call him now."

"If you called me that I'd get pretty agitated too."

"But he is old. He wouldn't shut us off just because I call him 's probably been working on something."

"Sounds like him. Why did you call him your old man." He misunderstood the interpretation.

"Not mine."

"Not mine, either."

One of the TARDIS doors opened. The Doctor peered in the frame but didn't step out. "Wha are you two kids jus standin there?"

"Just talking." Harper said.

"Well keep it down. I can barely concentrate on anything in there, and with Miss loud mouth 'ere.." Mandy opened her mouth to say something. He cut her off. "I'm not that old."

"Well..Are you going to just stand there or are you going to let us in?" Harper asked.

"No." The Doctor said, flatly.

"So...that's it then? You take us on a couple of trips and then give us the cold shoulder?"

"Is that what you think I'm doing?"

"Doctor." A third voice called from with in the room.

"What? Dun people even bother to knock anymore." The Doctor turned sharply.

The voice belonged to Claudia Brown, who was now standing in the middle of the room. "Hello to you too."

"Oh, Claudia Brown."

"A word with you outside, please." They stepped out into the hall. "I've been meaning to talk to you. We only really had a few chnaces...so those two. What have you been up to?"

"Jus travelin' about space. Could you by any chance hurry this up? I've got stuff..."

"You don't like talking to people much do you?"

"Actually I find it quite frustratin. Not you."

"How long are you planning on staying?"

"As soon as I get the fissures taken car off."

"You're not having them tag along then?" She was slightly shocked by his answer.

"I jus needed the stimulation."

"Stimulation, right." Something was not quite right about him.

"You dun with the interrogation now?" Ha asked.

"I am. For now."

* * *

Mac finally got the chance, to talk to the Doctor again.  
They were in his office, taking tea.

"Which life would this one be?"

"Twelfth." Even though the Doctor didn't show it, Mac felt the pain for him. Twelve lives. Did he even feel the pain? Living that long could make you numb toward some things. "There's something you'd wish to talk about?"  
"I've been thinking about it a lot lately. You and my grandfather were close friends."  
"I wouldn't say that close." The Doctor looked into his cup not making eye contact with Mac.  
"You called my grandfather, a few weeks after he died.."  
"I was going to send him an invitation to my death. My real death, not regeneration. I was supposed to die  
it was ordered by the silence,a religious order, thought I was getting too dangerous. So they raised an assassin to kill me. My friends had to be there so they could take care of my body couldn't let any one get their hands on it. You're grandfather would've known how to go about it."  
"He wouldn't have forgiven you for that."  
"Suppose not. Not that I would be worthy of it..or anyones.."

"How do you do it?"

"Do what?" the Doctor asked, pouring a disproportionately large volume of milk into his second cup of tea.

"Keep track of where and when you are. Figure out how you can change things without, you know, changing things. Meddle with time while still managing to stay sane."

The Doctor smiled. "I've had a lot of practice."

"How much practice?" Mac asked, knowing he'd regret it as soon as he got an answer.

"'Bout thirteen hundred years." Somehow the Doctor sensed the words were false. God knows how old he really was. Sometimes he felt he was as old as the universe. But that couldn't be possible. Could it?

Relieved that he hadn't had his cup to his lips when the Doctor spoke, Mac nevertheless choked a little upon hearing the response. "Right," he managed at last. "That makes me feel much better."

"As it should. I do have experience with this sort of thing, you know."

"You ever make mistakes?" Mac asked.

The Doctor put his cup quickly back into his saucer, a tremor in his hand causing it to rattle. He regarded Cutter with a serious expression that seemed out of place on his otherwise youthful visage. "Everyone makes mistakes," he said evenly.

"I have made many." Mac said. "I messed with things I didn't understand, time got screwed up. The woman I loved never existed. Tell me Doctor, you ever erased a woman from time?"

The Doctor didn't flinch. "Once I erased myself from time."

"Evidently you didn't do a very good job of it."

The Doctor put his cup and saucer aside. "What are you asking, Brigadier?" he wanted to know. "Do you not trust me?"

"I trust you." Mac answered.

"That would be the wrong answer." The Doctor grabbed his cup, sitting back in his chair.

"I just know that time travel isn't all fun and games."

The Doctor sat impossibly still, not even blinking. "All right." He said evenly. "No, it's not. Some people get trapped, some get lost.. If someone meddles with history it could tare the Universe apart. One little change and everyone forgets how it should be. They don't remember it. But I do. Once, I travelled with a woman who ended up trapped in a parallel universe. I can never see her again; when I did get the chance, I didn't even get to say a proper goodbye. Then," the Doctor went on, his eyes hard but his mind far away, "there was a woman, the most important woman in all of creation. In the end I had to wipe all her memories of me. If she saw me in the street, she wouldn't know who I was. If she were allowed to remember, her mind would burn and she would die... And then Amy, I screwed up her life the most. Playing on her child fantasies, promising her I'd come back. I made her wait for me. Then her husband got dragged into to it. He died, then didn't exsist, then he was plastic, then he did exsist. I lost both of them. But not before her daughter stolen because of me – a daughter whose death I witnessed three hundred years from now. So no. It's not all fun and games."

"So you know what it's like to lose a woman you love because of something you've done?

"All too well."

* * *

Way above the atmosphere was a ship, an alien spacecraft. It had massive engines and had similar features as a car. It's fuel engines opened.

After a journey of unknown distance, unknown time, a batch of microscopic seeds dropped from the atmosphere mixed with the fuel. They were scattered by the tiniest breath of wind. Most of the seeds survived but the real test was about to come. Within the next twenty four hours.

* * *

24 hours later.

He keeps insisting on calling my Brigadier. I think it's because he wants to have that connection that he had with my grandfather. He seems to have confided in me. But I think he needs someone else." He looked over the book he was reading, giving Claudia Brown a suggestive look.  
She had to look behind her to see if he meant her. She looked back at him, still unsure. "Me?"  
"Sophisticated, intelligent Claudia Brown, yes you."  
"Hold on, James. If you're suggesting I just get close to him because.."  
"It's not any of the sort. Besides the Doctor always acquires a pretty young woman."  
"I'm not as young as Mandy. He has her."  
"I think he will be more comfortable with telling you certain things. Rest assured I won't have any further involvement. You keep it confidential between you and him. And strictly professional."  
"Strictly professional." Claudia agreed.

"The Doctor's been acting like an annoying kid." Mandy said, storming into the room. "Please tell me you've got something..."

* * *

Margaret Smalls stared into the Microscope's eye piece trying to focus on the magnified image. She worked for the CDC.

Whatever the strange organism was, it had claimed two victims already.

They decided to bring in the 'experts' from some organization called UNIT. Brigadier James Lethbridge Stewart-Machpherson was sent in, informed of the situation. The two victims had had the same systems, their behavior becoming aggressive. The culprit, an unknown parasite. Mac knew it was probably alien in origin.

It looked much like a khan worm except it was gray. He knew a little about parasites. But this one was nothing on Earth he's seen. He decided to get the introductions out of the way and the general scoop before getting The Doctor's opinion.

"I was informed that you were coming." Margaret replied to his greeting. She did not seem too thrilled.

"You have any idea what that is?"

"That appears to be a siphon."

"A siphon? You mean this was taping into Brewster's bloodstream?" Brewster had been the first victim. "Like a mosquito?"

"No. Not quite like a mosquito. A mosquito merely inserts its proboscis into the skin and draws blood. What you're looking at is another level entirely. This siphon draws blood from the circulatory system but it's permanently attached. There's no visible means there are matching siphons that return blood to the circulatory system."

"So if it returns blood to the circulatory system, it's not feeding directly on the blood?"

"No. No directly. The growth obviously draws oxygen and possibly nutrients from the bloodstream. That must be how it grows. It may also feed directly on the host." She glanced at the Brigadier as if waiting for his opinion. Instead she asked. "Why did they need to send a government agency to assist us?"

"This goes way beyond regular science. And I have just your man for that sort of thing." The look he was given wouldn't be a pleasant one so he quickly added, If you don't mind. I think we should get a second opinion on this. "

* * *

The man was young. He looked like he could be anywhere from in his early twenties to mid thirties. He had that sort of face that you just couldn't put an age too. But his eyes were older than the rest of him. Something told her to not make eye contact with him.

"Have you figured out what the organisms made of?"

"Demodex folliculorum, a microscopic mite, larger than the dead skin which it feasts upon. It can ingest a tiny flake in a single bite. The mites hide in hair follicles, mostly but sometimes at night they slide out and crawl around on the host's skin. They are not some parasite found in only dirty third world countries where hygiene is a luxury but on every human being in the world."

"I really hate germs." Mandy felt like taking a nice hot shower, scrub every inch of herself clean. "Think I'll need to shower after hearing all that."

"Oh, they'll still be there. Harmless. Human germs. But vital to me. They're what keep me alive." He'd been exposed to the harmless germs for so long that if he was decontaminated of them, it would kill him.

"And that's part of the organism?" Margaret asked.

"It's not the parasite it's self. Like I said harmless. This is an entirely different organism. They usually start out as seeds. And say while the mites live their entire brief lives without leaving the body in their incessant feeding frenzy some of the mites eat the seeds which look similar to flakes of human skin. The mites eat the seeds, just another mouthful of all you can eat boufet. The mites digestive system hammer at the seeds outer coat protein digesting enzymes eat away at the membrane, breaking it down, weakening it. The membrane ruptures in several places but doesn't dissolve completley. Still intact the seed passes through the mites digestive system intact. And that's where it all began, really. Mixing the two together makes it deadly. A potentially deadly combination. Evil-lution."

"Where do the parasites come from? Not Earth obviously." Mandy said.

"Obviously not."

"These parasites normally live in organic fuel. Someone is using Earth as a dumping ground."

Margaret was not believing what she was hearing. "What are you two talking about?"

"Aliens." Mandy said. Margaret stared at her like she was the mad one.

"Before we figure out what to do next, I'll need to further examine it." The Doctor said.

* * *

The Doctor looked at the readouts with disbelief. "Come here and take a look at this."

"What have you got?"

"I finished the analysis on samples taken from the body and found massive quantities of neurotransmitters in the brain. Excessively high levels of dopamine, norepinephrine,..."

"My God." Margaret gasped. "His system was out of control. What do you think did this to him?"

"I don't know. I'm not familiar with most human biology." Apart from them having only one heart and a smaller brain. "I'll...have to check into it." He looked at the screen, reading the rest of the results.

Margaret read them over his shoulder. "Excessive levels of neurotransmitters can cause paranoid disorders even psychotic behaviors. And I'm not sure there has even been a case documented with levels this high."

"The growth is controlling the victims with natural drugs. I wish we could get out hands on a live victim so we could see the insides of these growths."

"We've only had this on examined. We haven't tested the other victim yet. But the growths on both victims but they were completely rotted out. It's almost as if the person who created these things intentionally added the rotting aspect so it would be harder to examine the little buggers."

"The growths either produce or causes to be produced excess neurotransmitters which create reproducible results. Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant."

"There are other varieties as well." Margaret said. "There was seventy five times the normal level of enkephalin in the tissue around the growth. Enkephalin is a natural pain killer." And he was an expert. Margaret thought.

"That makes sense. It's hard to tell with all the rot but it looks like the growth causes a lot of damage to the surrounding tissue. Whoever engineered this doesn't want the host to feel the damage. The level is completely astronomical."

"Doctor, you don't have time to root for the little buggers." Mandy reminded him. "We're here to stop these things, remember?"

He smiled. "It's hard not to be stounded. Come 'ere and take a look."

Mandy stepped up to stand on the other side of him, looking into the microscope. She had no idea what she was looking at.

"It's an isolated cluster of nerve cells." Margaret said. "It's heavily damaged, shows signs of decomposition, but still obviously nerve tissue."

The Doctor leaned forward. "You sure?'

Margaret wasn't in the mood for games. "Doctor, if you've got a point to make, please make it."

"The cells don't belong to Martin Brewster."

"Not Brewster's? Why are you looking at other samples. If they're not Brewster's then whose's.."

"I ran some tests. The results turned up some unknown proteins, defiantly not human."

"So the nerve cells belong to the parasite?"

"It appears so. I think I know what it was in the process of."

"What would that be?"

"Rewriting his whole biology. I'll need another sample."

* * *

By meaning taking another sample, he meant the bodies to be transported to UNIT.

The UNIT medic did her best to keep them from further decomposing. Despite her doing the best she could the black rot seemed to be spreading.

What they all didn't know was, even the Doctor, that the 'rot' was part of the organism, even though it's hosts were dead. It was still changing them, but into what exactly?

* * *

"I took some samples from around the body, and ran a protein sequence. I found high concentrations in the brain an in the cerebral cortex, thalamus, amygdala,

"So someone purposely dumped them? To experiment on us? Will it effect you?"

"Whoever engineered this set it for a human template."

"But why? If the goal is to make people crazy, then why would they go through the trouble.

"What about us?"

"You all were exposed to some form of time travel. The fissures or just stepping into the TARDIS...You're immune. All except..."

"The rest of the soldiers..."

"And Claudia Brown."

* * *

Mac and Charles Harper lay flat on the forest floor. Mac stared through his night vision binoculars. The green tinted picture sending goose bumps up his arms. "I don't know what that thing is but it can't be good." He said. "Got anymore wise cracks about _Star Trek _Charlie?"

"No, sir." Harper said.

"We getting any radiation readings?"

Harper shook his head, "No. at least not this far away. Geiger counters show nothing. Mac, what the hell is that thing?"

"I don't know, like I told you before, but I hope to all that is holy I'm wrong." Mac glanced behind him. Two soldiers worked compact digital cameras.

"You getting all this?' Mac asked.

"Yes, sir." The men said in unison.

The hatchlings were bustling around a pair of monstrous oak trees. The tree's dead branches formed a skeletal awning. As many as fifty hatchlings descended. They had built something strange, something organic, maybe even alive. Thick fibrous green strands ran in all directions from the trunks to the ground to the branches and back again at the centre of all the strands was some sort of construction, obviously a ship made out of the same fibrous material. The hatchlings crowded the massive sructure clinging with their tentacle legs. They splashed through the muddy forest floor.

Mac and Harper were about so many yards away from the construct.

"How far away are the others?" Mac asked Harper.

Harper switched on his ear piece, covering it with his hand as he talked into it. Then he said, "Two minutes."

The seconds ticked by. Mac heard the fast approach of the sound of rotors.

The hatchlings scattered.

"Did they hear the helicopters?" Mac asked.

"Maybe."

"Let your men know it's time to go. We might have to..." Mac's voice trailed off. The construct started to glow.

"Mac, what the hell is going on here?"

"I don't know but I don't like it. Let's have two squads forward. We have to get a better look." Mac rose to a crouch and quickly moved forward. He stopped advancing after fifty yards. "And give me some normal binoculars." Mac snapped.

Someone gave him a pair.

"Harper. ETA."

"Sixty seconds."

The construct grew brighter. One of the soldiers dropped his rifle and ran, screaming back into the forest. Several of the others slowly stepped backwards, fear in their young faces.

"Hold your positions." Harper shouted. "Next man to run gets shot in the back. Now get down!"

The hatchlings slid through the woods, like swarming insects.

"Harper, we've got company." Mac said.

"Squads four and five hold your positions." Harper shouted. "All other squads move forward to support. Fire at will." Gunfire erupted before he finished his last sentence. The constructs glow didn't fade, the glow changed to a deep green glow. Mac didn't move. He glanced up from the binoculars. The roar of gunfire erupted around him but he remained steadfast. A man's screams filled the night as one of the hatchlings made it past the hail of bullets. Mac didn't even notice because he saw something in the field. Movement. His eyes picked out individual creatures. It was like an ocean of creatures, pouring forward.

"There must be millions of them." Mac said. A gun erupted only a few feet from his ear, shattering his trance like focus. A hatchling rolled almost to his feet, twitching.

Harper had shot it dead, just as it leapt to attack. The surrounding gunfire slackened but was replaced by more screams as the hatchlings swarmed in.

"We're being over run." Harper said calmly, voice raised so he could be heard over the shrieks and cries.

"Captain, call a full strike, now." Mac roared. "Tell them to fire with everything they got."

Harper put his hand over his ear piece again. Mac drew his .45. A four foot high hatchling ripped through a patch of underbrush. It's black eyes fixed with fury, it's tentacles whipping forward Mac fired five times at point blank range. The creatures body shredded like soft plastic, green liquid onto the ground. Sounds came from all directions, gunfire, branches breaking, howls of pain, desperate pleas of help. He turned to see a hatchling closing in on a fallen soldier. Mac fired twice, dropping the hatchling. The wounded soldier drew his knife and threw himself at the hatchling, driving the blade in.

Scanning for the next target, Mac backed up to Harper, trying to protect him long enough to call in the air strike.

"Leader 6 to pigeon one." Harper said into his communicator. "Full strike, repeat, full strike on main target. Hit it with everything you've got!"

As if on cue, the gunfire suddenly stopped. Mac looked for an enemy and found none standing. A few hatchlings twitched on the ground, their struggles soon ended by shots. Mac raised the binoculars just as he heard the rapid fire roar of the helicopters launching their missiles.

The missiles slammed home, sending up a fire ball as it hit the construct. Harper threw himself face down on the ground as clouds of dirt, sticks and shrapnel, maybe even strands od string sailed over head with lethal speed.

The last fire ball floated up to the sky like a miniature dying sun. In a zombie like daze, Harper stood and moved forward.

Mac had been standing in the way of the blast. Harper hadn't had enough time to pull him away. The Brigadier had been just within reach.

Harper couldn't tell the Doctor. He sent one of his soldiers, Ogden to fetch the Doctor and bring him the news.

Blackened trees burned in the aftermath, branches ripped free from the force of the blast. Chunks of green strands littered the ground, most burning fast. A few soldiers appeared, walking slowly through the lifting smoke, their rifles swooping in continuous, cautious arcs. Fighting back fear, Harper walked to the area where the construct had stood. There was no sign of the creatures or the green glowing structure.

Ogden approached him, moving through the smoke, his demeanor as calm as if he were strolling through a park. The Doctor behind him. Also following close behind was Mandy and Claudia Brown.

"We counted fifty-six hatchlings." Ogden said. "All dead. Some may have gotten through when we were over run but the rear guards didn't see any, so it looks like we got them all." Ogden stopped as they reached Harper. "We lost eight men." The soldier continued. "Six of them the hatchlings, two from the shrapnel caused by the rocket strike. Another twelve wounded, maybe more..."

The Doctor scanned the sight, no doubt searching for Mac. He wouldn't find him. Ogden was about to inform the Doctor, when the Doctor asked. "Which ones were caught in the rocket strike?"

"I'm sorry, sir." Ogden said, his tone morbid. "The Brigadier, was caught in the blast..."

Claudia stepped forward, "Mac?" A hint of disbelief and denial in her voice.

Charlie couldn't look at any of them. He started at the empty space where the ship had been. "I couldn't pull him away in time." He hung his head, feeling ashamed and guilty. "I'm going to check on the wounded."

"Fine." The Doctor said. "That's fine."

Harper strode off, calling out orders in his calm, commanding voice, leaving the others. He couldn't bring himself to look at the Doctor's face.


	12. The Extintion of the Daleks

** Summary: The Doctor takes Mandy and Harper to New New Hampshire, which unknowingly to them has been secretly taken over by Daleks. Once again, the Doctor must choose the Daleks or the Human race. Bringing about the extinction of the Daleks might be the cost of the extinction of the human race. **

* * *

"I brought a few friends to New New York." The Doctor said, as they stepped out of the TARDIS. "Rebound much." Mandy muttered. She was carrying a picnic basket in her hand.

"I never quite got that New Hampshire is way be'er."

"We're in the middle of a forest. Why not have a picnic at a park or a beach?"

"Because, Mandy, parks are too noisy and well for the answer of your other sugesstion, I've been to way many of those."

As they were having their little picnic, Mandy looked round. The trees shading them. Barely any sound of wild life. No wonder why the Doctor loved the forests so much. They were secluded, like him.

"I think I might keep you." The Doctor was saying to Charlie.

"I think that's a good thing." Harper said.

"Cheers." They clinked glasses.

They encountered a pair of faternal twins.

Harper beings to walk off.

"Where are you going?" The Doctor asked.

"To shoot...something." Harper said, a tad bit of frustration in his voice.

Mandy stays with them to prove they're not a threat. Soon they are captured by Daleks, eventually Harper as well. And it was up to the Doctor to save them.


End file.
